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C  O T T  O'l 

AS  A  vVOiiLD  POWER 


JAIvlES  A. 3.  SCHERER 


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COTTON 


AS  A 


WORLD   POWER 

A  STUDY  IN  THE  ECONOMIC 
INTERPRETATION   OF   HISTORY 


BY 

JAMES  A.  B.  SCHERER,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

PRESIDENT  OP  THROOP   COLLEGE  OP  TECHNOLOGY 

Author  of  "The  Japanese  Crisis,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
Fbedebick  a,  Stokes  Compaitt 


AU  rights  reserved 


TO 
GEORGE  B.  CROMER 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The  core  of  this  book  was  used  as  a  lecture  at  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge  Universities  in  the  spring  of 
1914  with  the  caption,  **  Economic  Causes  in  the 
American  Civil  War. ' '  The  preparation  of  that  lec- 
ture involved  much  fresh  scrutiny  of  the  subject,  and 
I  wish  to  thank  the  authorities  of  the  Bodleian  Li- 
brary and  the  British  Museum  for  assistance.  To  my 
English  friends  Mr.  Norman  Angell  and  Sir  William 
Mather  I  extend  especial  thanks  for  invaluable  aid. 
On  this  side  of  the  water  I  owe  much  to  many  friends 
and  correspondents,  including  Major  Harry  Ham- 
mond, the  late  Mr.  D.  A.  Tompkins,  and  Dr.  Walter 
Hines  Page,  now  the  American  Ambassador  to  Eng- 
land. I  owe  most,  however,  to  my  Pasadena  friend, 
George  Ellery  Hale,  without  whose  encouragement 
I  should  hardly  have  brought  this  book  to  completion. 

I  desire  to  thank  my  colleagues.  Professors  Bar- 
rett, Judy,  and  Simons,  as  well  as  Mr.  James  Ford 
Rhodes,  Professor  John  Bates  Clark,  and  Mr.  R.  L. 
Ashley,  for  valuable  suggestions  made  while  the 
book  was  passing  through  the  press. 

Alphabetical  lists  of  the  leading  authorities  will  be 
found  at  the  close  of  the  volume. 

James  A.  B.  Scheeeb. 
Theoop  Coixeqe  of  Technology, 
Pasadena,  California. 


CONTENTS 

BOOK  I 
FROM  INDIA  TO  ENGLAND 

chafteb  page 

1  The  New  Golden  Fleece 1 

2  The  Vegetable  Lamb 6 

3  CoTax)N  Mythology 10 

4  Earliest    History 16 

5  Hindu  Skill 19 

6  Alexander's    Trade    Routes 23 

7  Egyptian  Mummies  and  the  Microscope,  ....  28 

8  From  Rome  to  Spain .30 

9  Cotton  and  the  Renaissance 34 

10  The  Weaver  King 39 

11  Cotton  Enters  England 44 

BOOK  II 
THE  TRANSFORMATION  OF  ENGLAND 

12  The  Industrial  Revolution 51 

13  British  Gentos   . 65 

14  Kay  and  Hargreaves 59 

15  Arkwright   the   Barber 66 

16  Crompton  and   Cartwright 71 

17  Watt  and  Davy 78 

18  Brindley's  Canals 84 

19  General    Results 89 

20  "Captains  of  Industry" 97 

21  Malthus  and  Darwin 104 


CONTENTS 

BOOK  III 

COTTON  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY: 
SECTIONAL  EVOLUTION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

22  Columbus  and  Cortes 113 

23  Colonial    Life 118 

24  Early    Manufacture 122 

25  The    Dis-United    States 127 

26  States'-Rights  and  the  Constitution 132 

27  Early    Slavery 138 

28  The  South  Against  Slavery 141 

29  Southern  Slavery  Declines 145 

30  A  Startling  Reversal 149 

31  Whitney  in   Georgia 154 

32  Whitney  Invents  the  Gin 158 

33  Eli  Whitney  vs.  Hodgen  Holmes 163 

34  Cotton  Changes  the  South 168 

35  Cotton  Affects  New  England 172 

BOOK  TV 

COTTON  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY: 

THE  GREAT  CONTROVERSIES 

36  Protection  and  Free  Trade;  Another  Reversal  .     .  179 

37  New  England  and  the  South 183 

38  Cotton  Exports  and  the  Tariff 187 

39  The   Constitutional   Dilemma 193 

40  The  Struggle  for  Fresh  Cotton  Lands 197 

41  Southern  Nationalism 202 

42  Texas  and  the  Wilmot  Proviso 205 

43  1850:  Calhoun  Speaks 209 

44  1850:  Webster  Answers  Calhoun 213 

45  Daniel  Webster  on  the  Power  of  Cotton  ....  217 


CONTENTS 

chapter  page 

46  The  End  op  an  Epoch 223 

47  "Cotton  Is  King" 228 

48  "The   Impending   Crisis" 231 

49  Senator  Hammond  on  the  Power  op  Cotton  .     .     .  235 

50  The  South's  Valedictory 240 

61  Secession  and  Factionalism  .....    •.     .     .     .  244 

52  Secession  and  the  Constitution 248 

53  Was  Secession  Taught  at  West  Point?      ....  251 

54  Cotton  Localizes  Secession 253 

BOOK  V 

COTTON  IN  AMEEICAN  HISTORY: 

THE  CIVIL  WAR 

55  Cotton  and  the  Sinews  op  War 257 

66  The  Cotton  Famine  in  England 261 

67  The  Cotton  Famine  in  France 270 

68  Napoleon's  Failure .     .  273 

69  The  British  Working-Man 278 

60  Napoleon  and  the  Cotton  Loan 283 

61  Napoleon,  Roebuck,  and  Bright 286 

62  The  Failure  op  the  Famine 290 

63  Economics  and  Fatalism  .........  295 

BOOK  yi 

THE  OLD  SOUTH  AND  THE  NEW 

64  Cotton  and  the  Old  South 301 

65  The  New  South  :  Cotton  and  Politics  ......  310 

66  The  New  South:  Socl^  Changes   ......  316 

67  The  New  South:  Social  Problems  .......  323 

The  Race  Problem 
Illiteracy 
Child  Labor 


CONTENTS 

BOOK  VII 
COTTON  AND  WORLD  TRADE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

68  "The  Money  Crop" 335 

69  Southern    Manufacture 340 

70  Are  Americans   Efficient? 344 

71  Sea    Shuttles 350 

72  When  War  Breaks 359 

73  British  Prospects  in  Egypt 370 

74  California  and  Other  Rivals  of  the  South  .     .     .  375 

75  Evolution  and  Human  Welfare 383 

Appendixes,  iNCJLUDmG  Illustrative  Statistics  .     .  397 


BOOK  I 
FEOM  INDIA  TO  ENGLAND 


COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

CHAPTER  1 

THE   NEW   GOLDEN   FLEECE 

It  was  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  while  rummaging 
among  the  quaint  and  musty  index  papers  of  the 
Upper  Reading  Room,  that  I  heard  one  capped  and 
gowned  librarian  muttering  to  another,  as  with  an 
air  of  offended  dignity: 

** Writing  on  cotton!  Why  on  earth  should  he 
want  to  write  on  such  a  subject  as  that?'* 

Yet  it  was  another  Oxford  don.  Professor  James 
E.  Thorold  Rogers,  who  proved  by  his  brilliant  lec- 
tures on  * '  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History ' ' 
that  plants  and  fibers  have  interwoven  with  the 
development  of  civilization  no  less  than  fine-spun 
theories  of  government,  while  others,  such  as  Gib- 
bins  and  Arnold  Toynbee,  attributed  to  cotton  and 
wool  the  controlling  influence  in  that  remarkable 
transformation  of  England  which  began  in  the 
eighteenth  century. 

While  reading  Frank  Norris's  fascinating  Cali- 
fornia novel,  *'The  Octopus,"  in  South  Carolina, 
fifteen  years  ago,  the  thought  occurred  to  the  writer : 
if  ''the  epic  of  the  wheat,'*  as  Norris  has  properly 
phrased  it,  holds  so  much  of  interest  and  suggestive- 
ness,  might  not  the  tracing  of  the  great  cotton  influ- 
ence prove  to  be  quite  as  alluring,  like  the  quest  of 
a  new  Golden  Fleece  ?  For  I  knew  enough  of  Amer- 
ican history,  and  was  sufficiently  familiar  with  the 
mysterious  nomadic  career  of  this  "vegetable  wooP' 


r 


2  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

from  the  Orient,  to  suspect  in  such  a  connection  an 
unworked  quarry  of  wealth.  I  have  therefore  at 
odd  moments  engaged  myself,  as  administrative 
duties  permitted,  in  mining  a  few  random  fragments 
of  ore,  and  smelting  them  as  best  I  knew  how. 

It  is  amazing  the  way  the  veins  ramified — enticing 
one  on  to  become,  as  it  were,  a  nosing  adventurous 
Jason,  prying  in  all  sorts  of  places.  *'The  gods 
send  threads  for  a  web  begun."  Through  pleasant 
highways  of  half  forgot  prose  and  along  quaint 
hedgerows  of  verse  the  quest  of  this  fleece  has  mean- 
dered ;  through  mazes  of  myth  as  well  as  the  straight 
paths  of  fact,  through  intimacies  of  obscure  biog- 
raphy as  well  as  large  spaces  of  history,  and  along 
the  avenues  of  trade. — All  at  once  burst  the  tem- 
pest of  war;  and,  lo!  cotton  was  puffed  into  air 
like  so  much  thistledown,  sensitive  as  it  is  to  the  cur- 
rents of  civilization,  and  therefore  blown  into  shreds 
like  civilization  itself  by  the  shock  of  this  world- 
wide storm. 

The  Great  War  brought  home  to  the  public  mind 
as  nothing  else  could  have  done  the  knowledge  that 
this  vegetable  fleece  is  really  golden,  and  that  its 
golden  values  are  so  interwoven  with  the  solidarity 
of  mankind  as  to  depend  to  a  peculiar  degree  for 
their  stability  on  the  maintenance  of  an  unbroken 
network  of  international  trade.  Who  knew,  before 
the  Great  War,  that  the  world's  cotton  crop,  of 
which  three-quarters,  or  thereabouts,  is  produced  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  exceeds  in  value  the 
whole  world's  output  of  the  precious  metals  by  fifty 
per  cent?  ^    Who  realized  that  the  United  States,  in 

1  Value  of  eleven  years'  cotton  crop   (1901-11)    £1,607,000,000 

Value  of  gold  for  same  period    807,000,000  i  ,  ^„^  Pion  nnn 

Value  of  silver  "      "  "  213,000,000  1 l,UZ0,00U,UOU 

—The  Financier,  Jan.  7,  1913. 


THE  NEW  GOLDEN  FLEECE  3 

addition  to  its  large  manufacture  of  cotton  goods, 
exports  raw  cotton  annually  in  a  sum  exceeding  in  ^ 
value  its  next  three  greatest  export  groups  put 
together?  2  Who  among  us  had  stopped  to  think 
that  this  enormous  production  is  almost  entirely  con- 
fined to  a  little  group  of  Southeastern  States,  or 
paused  to  wonder  what  would  happen  to  them  if  this  ^ 
stupendous  source  of  revenue  should  become  sud- 
denly clogged?  How  many  intelligent  Americans 
have  been  aware  that  this  single  Southern  conunod- 
ity  has  maintained  an  annual  balance  of  trade  in 
favor  of  the  United  States  on  the  pages  of  the 
world's  ledgers,  by  attracting  a  stream  of  European 
gold  westward  each  autumn  and  setting  in  motion 
the  current  of  liquidation  necessary  to  sustain  na- 
tional credit?  As  Mr.  Theodore  Price  points  out,  . 
cotton  is  peculiar  in  that  it  is  the  only  crop  of  / 
importance  all  of  which  is  sold  by  those  who  produce 
it.  Only  seventeen  per  cent  of  the  corn  crop,  for 
instance,  leaves  the  farms;  the  rest  is  consumed  or 
fed  to  stock  by  those  who  produce  it.  Cotton, 
therefore,  generates  an  enormous  commerce  and  v 
provides  a  medium  of  exchange  that  almost  entirely 
takes  the  place  of  gold  in  the  settlement  of  inter- 
state and  international  balances.^  The  late  Wil- 
liam B.  Dana,  for  many  years  editor  of  the  Com- 

2  "The  value  of  cotton  exported  during  the  fiscal  year.  1912 
amounted  to  $565,849,271,  or  26.1  per  cent  of  the  total  value  of  all 
articles  of  domestic  merchandise  exported  during  the  year.  It  ex- 
ceeded the  amounts  for  iron  and  steel  manufactures,  meat  and  dairy 
products,  and  bread  stuffs  combined,  these  three  groups  ranking 
next  in  importance  among  articles  exported.  These  large  exports, 
combined  with  the  more  than  five  million  bales  consumed  in  do- 
mestic manufacture,  strikingly  indicate  the  importance  of  cotton  in 
the  economic  affairs  of  the  nation." — Report  of  the  U.  8.  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce,  July,  1913.  For  other  financial  facts  and 
figures,  see  Chapters  67-68,  70-71. 

3  See  Appendix  A. 


4  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

'  mercial  and  Financial  Chronicle,  once  said  that 
cotton,  being  practically  imperishable  and  always 
convertible,  possessed  more  of  the  attributes  of  a 
legal  tender  than  anything  produced  by  human  labor 
except  gold.*  It  is  the  world's  Golden  Fleece;  the 
nations  are  bound  together  in  its  globe-engirdling 
web;  so  that  when  a  modern  economist  concerns 
himself  with  the  interdependence  of  nations  he 
naturally  looks  to  cotton  for  his  most  effective  illus- 

i    tration,  as  witness  the  following: 

'*A  manufacturer  in  Manchester  strikes  a  bar- 
gain with  a  merchant  in  Louisiana  in  order  to  keep 
a  bargain  with  a  dyer  in  Germany,  and  three  or  a 
much  larger  number  of  parties  enter  into  virtual, 
or  perhaps  actual,  contract,  and  form  a  mutually 
dependent  economic  community  (numbering,  it  may 
be,  with  the  workpeople  in  the  group  of  industries 
involved,  some  millions  of  individuals) — an  eco- 
nomic entity  so  far  as  one  can  exist  which  does  not 
include  all  organized  society. ' '  ^ 

And  yet  it  is  only  within  recent  times  that  cotton 

V  has  entered  the  Occident  from  its  ancient  home  in 
the  Orient,  and  affected  the  welfare  and  wealth  of 
western  men.  A  century  and  a  quarter  ago  its  influ- 
ence had  but  just  made  its  way  from  India  through 
Europe  as  far  as  England,  and  meant  as  yet  nothing 
whatever  to  North  America.  Its  startling  growth 
here  is  graphically  exhibited  in  the  following  table,^ 
showing  the  chief  raiment  supplies  of  Europe  and 

*  Cited  in  the  Outlook,  New  York,  September  9,  1914.  In  this 
article  Mr.  Price  undertakes  to  demonstrate  that  cotton  in  normal 
years  takes  the  place  of  gold  in  the  settlement  of  America's  huge 
annual  indebtedness  to  Europe,  as  shown  in  Appendix  A. 

5  The  Foundations  of  International  Polity,  by  Norman  Angell : 
London,  1914;  p.  xxiv. 

6  Major  Harry  Hammond  in  the  News  and  Courier  Centennial 
Nxunber:     Charleston,  1903;  p.  33,  The  Century  in  Agriculture. 


THE  NEW  GOLDEN  FLEECE  5 

America  ten  years  before  Eli  Whitney  invented  the 
gin  (1793),  and  a  century  later: 

178S  188S 

Flax    18.4%  6.22% 

Wool     77.2%  20.65% 

Cotton    4.4%  73.13% 

To  trace  the  skeins  of  this  fleecy  white  fiber 
through  mazes  of  fable  and  fact,  from  its  cradle  in 
India,  where  Alexander  discovered  it,  to  modern 
England  by  tortuous  slow  stages  through  Egypt, 
Rome,  and  Spain ;  to  tell  the  story  of  its  revolution- 
ary influence  in  Great  Britain  and  to  suggest  its 
wholly  unappreciated  effect  on  the  history  of  the 
United  States;  to  show  the  personalities  and  depict 
the  times  of  some  of  the  men  whom  it  influenced  and 
who  in  turn  lent  their  vigor  to  increase  its  strength ; 
and,  finally,  to  indicate  the  peculiar  importance  of 
cotton  in  contemporary  world  trade,  and  its  relation 
to  the  Great  War,  is  the  object  of  the  following 
pages. 


CHAPTER  2 

THE   VEGETABLE   LAMB 

Alexandee  the  Great,  who  has  perhaps  influ- 
enced civilization  more  than  any  other  personality 
except  Christ,  acquainted  Europe  with  India ;  and  not 
the  least  wonderful  of  the  oriental  curios  described 
by  his  generals  ^  on  their  home-coming  was  that 
singular  plant  from  which  the  natives  plucked  a 
"vegetable  wool"  which  they  spun  into  admirable 
clothing.  Nearchus,  for  example,  reported  that 
there  were  in  India  shrubs  bearing  tufts  or  bunches 
of  wool,  and  that  from  this  wool  the  natives  made 
garments  of  surpassing  whiteness, — "a  shirt,  or 
tunic,  reaching  to  the  middle  of  the  leg,  a  sheet 
folded  about  the  shoulders,  and  a  turban  rolled 
around  the  head ; "  ^  from  which  terse  description  it 
may  clearly  be  seen  that  the  costume  of  the  con- 
servative Hindus  remains  unchanged  to  this  day. 

Alexander's  soldiers,  Nearchus  further  reported, 
were  quick  to  use  this  '  *  vegetable  wool ' '  for  bedding, 
and  as  pads  for  their  saddles.  It  is  highly  probable, 
indeed,  that  they  brought  back  with  them  assorted 
specimens  of  Indian  cotton  cloth:  ** Calicut  cloth," 
or  calico,  with  muslin  from  Mosul,  and  various  other 
piece-goods. 

Ages  elapsed,  however,  before  the  cotton  plant 
came  to  be  cultivated  in  Europe,  and  during  that 

1  Aristobulus  and  Nearchus  are  freely  cited  in  Strabo's  Geographia, 

XV. 

a  Fabius  Arrianus,  Historia  Indica,  xvi. 

6 


THE  VEGETABLE  LAMB  7 

period  a  myth  slowly  interwove  itself  with  the 
strands  of  this  "vegetable  wool,"  one  of  the  strang- 
est myths  of  which  history  holds  record,  unraveled 
only  a  few  years  ago  by  the  patience  of  a  British 
antiquarian. 

Theophrastus  (about  372-287  b.  o.)  unwittingly 
sowed  seed  for  this  myth  in  his  Botany,  as  will 
shortly  be  shown.  In  an  admirable  description  of 
the  cotton  plant  he  said : 

''The  trees  from  which  the  Indians  make  their 
clothes  have  leaves  like  those  of  the  black  mulberry, 
but  the  entire  plant  resembles  the  dog-rose.  They 
are  set  out  in  furrows  on  the  plains,  at  a  distance 
resembling  a  vineyard.  — These  wool-bearing 
shrubs  have  leaves  like  the  grape-vine,  but  smaller. 
They  bear  no  fniit,  indeed,  but  the  pod  containing 
the  wool  resembles  a  spring  apple  (/x^Aoi/),  while  this 
pod  is  still  unripe  and  unopened.  When  ripe,  it 
bursts  open.  The  wool  is  then  gathered  from  it  and 
woven  into  cloth  of  divers  qualities;  some  inferior, 
and  some  of  considerable  value. ' '  ^ 

The  close  resemblance  between  cotton  fiber  and 
lamb's  wool  must  have  led  many  Europeans  to  mis- 
take one  for  the  other;  or,  rather,  to  regard  cotton 
as  a  strange  new  species  of  wool.  But  rumor,  truth- 
ful in  one  essential  detail,  persisted  that  this  Orien- 
tal importation  was  a  vegetable  product,  growing 
in  Indo-Scythia  on  shrubs  and  trees ;  especially  since 
Herodotus  *  himself,  the  father  of  history,  had 
described  cotton  as  ''wool  from  the  trees";  writing 
elsewhere  of  "trees  bearing,  as  their  fruit,  fleeces 
which  surpass  those  of  sheep  in  beauty  and  excel- 
lence. ' ' 

8  De  Historia  Plantarum,  iv,  4,  9. 
*Hi8toria,  iii,  47,  106,  vii,  65. 


8  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

Thus  arose  the  fable  of  a  vegetable  lamb,  or 
zoophyte,  an  animal  growing  on  a  tree !  The  name 
of  this  fabulous  creature  finally  became  fixed  as 
the  Scythian  lamb,  through  confusion  of  Scythia 
with  Indo-Scythia ;  and  subsequently  also  as  the 
Tartary  lamb,  both  because  ''Tartary'*  was  loosely 
used  to  denote  Scythia,  and  also  because  nomadic 
Tartar  merchants  brought  with  them  in  their  cara- 
vans, together  with  the  fleece  of  Tartary  sheep  and 
goats,  "the  fine  white  wool  that  grew  on  trees"  in 
India. 

Many  years  after  he  had  written  his  Botany,  and 
when  Greek  had  become  a  dead  language  in  Europe, 
Theophrastus,  by  his  ambiguous  use  of  the  word 
melon,  as  alDove  quoted,  was  thought  to  give 
final  and,  as  it  were,  scientific  confirmation  to  the 
story  of  the  vegetable  lamb.  Melon,  in  Greek,  may 
mean  either  tree-fruit  or  sheep,  and  of  course  there 
are  spring  sheep,  or  lambs,  as  well  as  spring  apples. 
Had  not  Theophrastus,  therefore,  botanized  of  a 
lamb  that  grew  upon  shrubs  in  India  ?  It  was  but  a 
step,  then,  to  modify  the  language  of  Herodotus  so 
as  to  make  him  seem  to  describe  **  plants  bearing 
fruit  within  which  there  is  a  lamb  having  fleece  of 
surpassing  beauty  and  excellence";  and  the  myth 
was  wholly  made ! 

In  more  modern  times,  when  travelers  in  Tartary 
searched  for  this  famous  zoophyte,  naturally  they 
did  not  find  it.  They  did  find,  however,  a  shaggy 
toy  made  of  the  rhizome  of  a  fern  so  as  roughly  to 
resemble  a  lamb,  and  this  for  a  long  time  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  prototype  and  justification  of  the 
enormous  and  confounding  fable  of  the  **Borametz," 
or  **Barometz,'*  these  words  being  obscure  deriva- 
tives from  the  Tartar  word  for  "ram,"  and  "Bara- 


THE  VEGETABLE  LAMB  9 

nets"  being  Russian  for  the  fern-plant  Lycopodium 
Selago.  It  was  not  until  1887  that  Mr.  Henry  Lee, 
acting  on  an  ingenious  guess  of  Erman's,  conclu- 
sively identified  the  **  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary" 
with  the  cotton  boll  which  Alexander  had  discovered 
in  India.^ 

6  Henry  Lee,  The  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary:     London,  1887. 


CHAPTER  3 

COTTON   MYTHOLOGY 

Imaginative  writers  have  dallied  delightfully  with 
the  Vegetable  Lamb  in  several  languages.  Among 
his  collection  of  literary  tributes  to  this  supposed 
** miracle  of  Nature,"  Mr.  Henry  Lee  translates  a 
Latin  poem  written  by  the  eminent  French  botanist, 
De  la  Croix,  so  recently  as  1791. 

The  traveler  who  plows  the  Caspian  wave 
For  Asia  bound,  where  foaming  breakers  lave 
Borysthenes'  wild  shores,  no  sooner  lands 
Than  gazing  in  astonishment  he  stands; 
For  in  his  path  he  sees  a  monstrous  birth, — 
The  Barometz  arises  from  the  earth : 
Upon  a  stalk  is  fixed  a  living  brute, 
A  rooted  plant  bears  quadruped  for  fruit; 
It  has  a  fleece,  nor  does  it  want  for  eyes, 
And  from  its  brows  two  woolly  horns  arise. 
The  rude  and  simple  country  people  say 
It  is  an  animal  that  sleeps  by  day 
And  wakes  at  night,  though  rooted  to  the  ground, 
To  feed  on  grass  within  its  reach  around. 
The  flavor  of  Ambrosia  its  flesh 
Pervades ;  and  the  red  nectar,  rich  and  fresh. 
Which  vineyards  of  fair  Burgundy  produce 
Is  less  delicious  than  its  ruddy  juice. 
If  Nature  had  but  on  it  feet  bestowed, 
Or  with  a  voice  to  bleat  the  lamb  endowed, 
To  cry  for  help  against  the  threat 'ning  fangs 
Of  hungry  wolves ;  as  on  its  stalk  it  hangs. 
Seated  on  horseback  it  might  seem  to  ride, 
Whit 'ning  with  thousands  more  the  mountain  side. 

10 


COTTON  MYTHOLOGY  11 

Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,^  poetizing  in  1789  with 
intent  "to  inlist  Imagination  under  the  banner  of 
Science,"  went  so  far  as  to  endow  the  fabled  lamb 
with  golden  hair,  a  rosy  tongue,  melting  eyes,  and 
a  voice : 

Cradled  in  snow,  and  fann'd  by  Arctic  air 
Shines,  gentle  Barometz!  thy  golden  hair; 
Rooted  in  earth  each  cloven  hoof  descends. 
And  round  and  round  her  flexile  neck  she  bends ; 
Crops  the  gray  coral  moss,  and  hoary  thyme, 
Or  laps  with  rosy  tongue  the  melting  rime ; 
Eyes  with  mute  tenderness  her  distant  dam, 
Or  seems  to  bleat,  a  Vegetable  Lamb. 

The  extreme  antiquity  of  this  marvelous  plant  was 
certified  by  the  Sieur  du  Bartas,  who  in  1578 
described  its  discovery  by  Adam  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden:  2 

Musing,  anon  through  crooked  walks  he  wanders. 

Round  winding  rings,  and  intricate  meanders, 

False-guiding  paths,  doubtful,  beguiling,  strays, 

And  right- wrong  errors  of  an  endless  maze; 

Nor  simply  hedged  with  a  single  border 

Of  rosemary  cut  out  with  curious  order 

In  Satyrs,  Centaurs,  Whales,  and  half-men-horses. 

And  thousand  other  counterfeited  corses; 

But  with  true  beasts,  fast  in  the  ground  still  sticking 

Feeding  on  grass,  and  th'  airy  moisture  licking. 

Such  as  those  Borametz  in  Scythia  bred 

Of  slender  seeds,  and  with  green  fodder  fed ; 

Although  their  bodies,  noses,  mouths,  and  eyes. 

Of  new-yeaned  lambs  have  full  the  form  and  guise. 

And  should  be  very  lambs,  save  that  for  foot 

Within  the  ground  they  fix  a  liviag  root 

1  The  Botanic  Garden,  Part  I :  The  Economy  of  Vegetation :  Lon- 
don, 1791;  Part  II:     The  Loves  of  the  Plants:     London,  1790. 

2  Translation  by  Joshua  Sylvester  as  given  by  Henry  Lee,  as  cited. 


12  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

Which  at  their  navel  grows,  and  dies  that  day 

That  they  have  browsed  the  neighboring  grass  a;way. 

Oh !  wondrous  nature  of  God  only  good, 

The  beast  hath  root,  the  plant  hath  flesh  and  blood. 

The  nimble  plant  can  turn  it  to  and  fro, 

The  nummed  beast  can  neither  stir  nor  goe ; 

The  plant  is  leafless,  branchless,  void  of  fruit. 

The  beast  is  lustless,  sexless,  fireless,  mute : 

The  plant  with  plant  his  hungry  paunch  doth  feed, 

Th'  admired  beast  is  sowen  a  slender  seed. 

Passing  now  from  poetry  to  sober  prose  narra- 
tive, we  derive  the  following  account  of  Borametz 
from  the  famous  Dutch  traveler,  Jean  de  Struys : 

*  *  On  the  west  side  of  the  Volga  is  a  great  dry  and 
waste  heath,  called  the  Step.  On  this  heath  is  a 
strange  kind  of  fruit  found,  called  'Baromez'  or 
*Barnitsch,'  from  the  word  *Boran,'  which  is  *a 
Lamb'  in  the  Russian  tongue,  because  of  its  form 
and  appearance  much  resembling  a  sheep,  having 
head,  feet  and  tail.  Its  skin  is  covered  with  a  down 
very  white  and  as  soft  as  silk. — It  grows  upon  a  low 
stalk,  about  two  and  a  half  feet  high,  some  higher, 
and  is  supported  just  at  the  navel.  The  head  hangs 
down,  as  if  it  pastured  or  fed  on  the  grass,  and  when 
the  grass  decays  it  perishes :  but  this  I  ever  looked 
upon  as  ridiculous;  although  when  I  suggested  that 
the  languishing  of  the  plant  might  be  caused  by  some 
temporary  want  of  moisture,  the  people  asseverated 
to  me  with  many  oaths  that  they  have  often,  out  of 
curiosity,  made  experiment  of  that  by  cutting  away 
the  grass,  upon  which  it  instantly  fades  away.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  there  is  nothing  which  is  more  coveted 
by  wolves  than  this,  and  the  inward  parts  of  it  are 
more  congeneric  with  the  anatomy  of  a  lamb  than 
mandrakes  are  with  men.    However,  what  I  might 


COTTON  MYTHOLOGY  13 

further  say  of  this  fruit,  and  what  I  believe  of  the 
wonderful  operations  of  a  secret  sympathy  in 
Nature,  I  shall  rather  keep  to  myself  than  aver,  or 
impose  upon  the  reader  with  many  other  things 
which  I  am  sensible  would  appear  incredible  to  those 
who  had  not  seen  them. ' '  ^ 

Jean  de  Struys  published  this  restrained  account 
at  Amsterdam  in  1681.  In  the  same  year  Claude 
Duret  included  in  his  ** History  of  Plants"  a  chapter 
on  ''The  Borametz  of  Scythia,"  which  affords  inter- 
esting new  characteristics: 

*'It  was  in  form  like  a  lamb,  and  from  its  navel 
grew  a  stem  or  root  by  which  this  zoophyte  or  plant- 
animal  was  fixed,  attached,  like  a  gourd,  to  the  soil 
below  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and,  according  to 
the  length  of  its  stem  or  root,  it  devoured  all  the 
herbage  which  it  was  able  to  reach  within  the  circle 
of  its  tether.  The  hunters  who  went  in  search  of 
this  creature  were  unable  to  capture  or  remove  it 
until  they  had  succeeded  in  cutting  the  stem  by  well- 
aimed  arrows  or  darts,  when  the  animal  immediately 
fell  prostrate  to  the  earth  and  died.  Its  bones  being 
placed  with  certain  ceremonies  and  incantations  in 
the  mouth  of  one  desiring  to  foretell  the  future,  he 
was  instantly  seized  with  a  spirit  of  divination,  and 
endowed  with  the  gift  of  prophecy. ' '  * 

About  the  time  that  the  imaginary  and  highly 
imaginative  **Sir  John  Maundevile"  professed  to 
have  set  out  from  St.  Albans  upon  his  memorable 
journey.  Friar  Odoric  the  Bohemian  wrote  an  ac- 
count of  his  own  recent  travels  in  which  he  mentions 
Borametz  as  follows : 

**  Another  passing  marvelous  thing  may  be  re- 

3  Quoted  by  Henry  Lee,  as  cited. 
*  Quoted  by  Henry  Lee,  as  cited. 


14  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

lated,  which  however  I  saw  not  myself,  but  heard 
from  trustworthy  persons.  For  'tis  said  that  in  a 
certain  great  kingdom  called  Cadeli  there  be  moun- 
tains called  the  Caspean  Mountains,  on  which  are  said 
to  grow  very  large  melons.  And  when  these  be  ripe, 
they  burst,  and  a  little  beast  is  found  inside  like  a 
small  lamb,  so  that  they  have  both  melons  and  meat ! 
And  though  some,  peradventure,  may  find  that  hard 
to  believe,  yet  it  may  be  quite  true;  just  as  it  is 
true  that  there  be  in  Ireland  trees  which  produce 
birds.  "^ 

Boldest  of  all  these  historians,  however,  is 
Odoric's  plunderer,  who,  writing  as  "Sir  John 
Maundevile,  Knight,"  professes  to  have  set  out  from 
England  in  1322,  and,  as  he  says  in  his  * '  Voiage  and 
Travaile,"  passed  through  "manye  diverse  Londes, 
where  dwellen  many  dyverse  Folkes,  and  of  dyverse 
Maneres  and  Lawes,  and  of  dyverse  Schappes  of 
Men"  and  eke  of  beasts,  including  Irish  barnacles, 
but  especially  the  Vegetable  Lamb,  which  he  duly 
and  intimately  encountered  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
great  Cham  of  Tartary. 

''And  there  growethe  a  maner  of  Fruyt,"  writes 
this  mischievous  author,  "as  thoughe  it  weren 
Gowrdes :  and  whan  thei  ben  rype,  men  kutten  hem 
a  to,  and  men  fynden  with  inne  a  lytylle  Best,  in 
Flessche,  in  Bon  and  Blode,  as  though  it  were  a 
lytylle  Lomb,  with  outen  WoUe.  And  men  eten 
bothe  the  Frut  and  the  Best:  and  that  is  a  gret 
Marveylle.  Of  that  Frute  I  have  eten ;  alle  thoughe 
it  were  wondirfuUe :  but  that  I  knowe  wel,  that  God 
is  marveyllous  in  his  Werkes. ' '  ® 

5  Henry  Yule,  editor,  Cathay  and  the  Way  Thither :  London, 
1866;    p.   144. 

e  Voiage  and  Travaile  of  Sir  John  Maundevile,  Kt.  (Halliwell), 
reprinted  from  the  edition  of  1725:     London,  1883;  xxvi. 


COTTON  MYTHOLOGY  15 

To  such  substantial  corporeality  had  grown  the 
myth  of  the  Indian  cotton  boll,  at  the  very  time  when 
a  few  Flemish  weavers  were  settling  at  Manchester 
(in  1328),  and,  under  the  shrewd  patronage  of 
Edward  III,  were  beginning  the  manufacture  of 
those  so-called  "Manchester  cottons"  that  were 
destined  to  become  the  foundation  of  England's 
immense  cotton  industry. 

It  is  little  wonder  that  this  plant  has  laid  hold  on 
the  imaginations  of  men  throughout  the  world  in 
various  ages.  Known  to  the  people  of  India  for  two 
thousand  years  before  Alexander's  soldiers  dis- 
covered it  there,  and  plied  by  nimble  Hindu  fingers 
on  primitive  looms  into  fabrics  so  fair  and  delicate 
as  to  evoke  the  poetic  description  of  *'webs  of  the 
woven  wind,"  cotton  wended  its  triumphant  way 
westward  with  the  course  of  empire,  itself  a  captain 
of  civilization,  clothing  Mark  Antony's  soldiers  in 
the  heat  of  the  fierce  Egyptian  summer,  bringing 
fame  to  Barcelona  in  the  manufacture  of  sail-cloth, 
enriching  Venice  and  Milan  with  fustians  and  dim- 
ities, and  producing  as  by  magic  the  industrial  trans- 
formation of  England,  until  at  last  in  the  new  west- 
ern world  it  wove  itself  inextricably  into  the  web  of 
the  national  history,  and  now  shuttles  all  the  oceans 
with  bands  of  intercourse  and  trade. 


/ 


CHAPTEE  4 

EABLIEST  HISTORY 

The  cultivation  and  manufacture  of  cotton  would 
seem  to  have  evolved  independently  on  three  conti- 
nents, Asia,  Africa,  and  South  America;  but  Asia 
is  of  leading  concern  to  us,  since  it  was  from  India 
that  the  plant  found  its  way  into  Europe.  Three 
of  the  principal  countries  of  the  East  have  from 
remote  antiquity  been  characterized  by  their  more 
distinctive  raiments:  China  as  the  land  of  silk, 
Egypt  of  flax,  and  India  of  cotton.  India,  preemi- 
nently the  mother  land  of  this  plant,  is  to-day  out- 
ranked as  a  cotton  producing  country  only  by  the 
United  States,  and  carries  on  a  modem  manufac- 
turing industry  of  large  proportions,  as  will  appear 
in  the  final  section. 

The  first  known  mention  of  cotton  is  found  in  a 
Eig  Veda  hymn,  composed  fifteen  centuries  before 
Christ,  which  honors  the  *  threads  in  the  loom," 
indicating  that  manufacture  was  already  well  ad- 
vanced.^ The  Sacred  Institutes  of  Manu,  dating 
from  800  b.  c,  contain  such  frequent  references  to 
cotton  as  to  denote  a  very  high  esteem  among  the 
ancient  Hindus.^  In  fact,  they  had  come  to  hold 
this  mystic  plant  in  actual  reverence,  beautiful  as  it 
was  in  both  blossom  and  fruit,  responsive  to  culti- 

iHymn  105,  vs.  8.  Cited  by  J.  F.  Royle  in  The  Culture  and 
Commerce  of  Cotton  in  India:     London,  1851. 

2  Manu,  ii,  44,  viii,  236,  397.  Cited  in  Bulletin  33,  U.  S.  Dept. 
Agriculture:     Washington,  1896. 

16 


EARLIEST  HISTORY  17 

vation,  and  so  indispensable,  indeed,  with  its  copious 
perennial  supply  of  strong  and  silken  ''vegetable 
wool,'*  being  far  better  adapted  to  their  peculiar 
climatic  conditions  than  the  downiest  fleece  supplied 
by  shepherds  from  the  plains. 

As  indicating  the  reverential  awe  in  which  the 
Hindus  held  their  white  fiber,  it  is  noteworthy  that 
thefts  of  cotton  thread  were,  according  to  the  Insti- 
tutes of  Manu,  punishable  by  fines  of  treble  the  value 
of  the  stolen  goods;  moreover,  it  was  required  by 
the  religious  law  that  the  sacrificial  thread  of  the 
Brahmin  should  always  be  spun  from  this  plant. 
The  laws  also  mention  weaving  and  sizing.  Herod- 
otus said  that  the  Hindus  made  their  clothes  of 
**tree  wool,"  which  is  the  name  the  modern  Ger- 
mans give  to  cotton  (Baum-wolle).  We  have  seen 
that  Alexander  found  it  in  general  use  when  he 
invaded  the  Punjab,  and  that  it  was  he  who  intro- 
duced it  into  Europe. 

In  Persia  it  had  attained  to  extensive  use  long 
before  Alexander's  invasion.  The  purdah  (Persian 
parda),  for  excluding  the  heat,  is  no  doubt  a  very 
ancient  invention.  Aristobulus,  one  of  Alexander's 
generals,  speaks  feelingly  of  the  severe  heat  of 
Susa,  the  capital  city,  not  sparing  his  gifts  of  force- 
ful imaginative  expression.  **  Lizards  and  serpents 
could  not  cross  the  streets  at  noon  quickly  enough 
to  prevent  their  being  burned  to  death  mid-way  by 
the  heat,"  he  declares;  while  ** barley,  spread  out  in 
the  sun,  was  roasted,  and  hopped  about"  like  pop- 
corn! ''The  inhabitants  laid  earth  to  a  depth  of 
three  and  a  half  feet  on  the  roofs  of  their  houses  to 
exclude  the  suffocating  heat. ' '  ^ 

This  was  in  the  fourth  century  before   Christ. 

»See  ch,  2,  note  1. 


18  COTTON  AS  A  WOBLD  POWER 

Two  hundred  years  earlier,  the  less  fervid  author  of 
the  book  of  Esther,  describing  a  royal  feast  in  this 
same  capital  city,  mentioned  the  ''white,  green,  and 
blue  hangings "  *  of  the  royal  palace,  wherein  the 
King  showed  ''the  riches  of  his  glorious  kingdom 
and  the  honor  of  his  excellent  majesty  many  days." 

Just  as  Nearchus,  the  associate  of  Aristobulus, 
described  the  Hindu  costume  which  still  prevails 
(see  page  6),  so  it  is  highly  probable  that  these 
canopies  of  Ahasuerus  were  exactly  the  same  as 
those  hangings  of  white  and  blue  striped  cotton  so 
common  throughout  India  to-day;  and  that  in  the 
time  of  Aristobulus,  as  now,  blue  and  white  striped 
purdahs,  stuffed  with  cotton,  were  hung  before  win- 
dows and  doors  in  the  summer  to  keep  out  the  fierce 
Persian  heat  of  which  he  complained  with  such 
vehemence. 

That  cotton  was  early  known  in  Assyria  is  wit- 
nessed by  an  inscription  on  a  cylinder  in  the  British 
Museum,  descriptive  of  the  great  gardens  which 
Sennacherib  (705-681  b.  c.)  laid  out  along  the  river 
above  and  below  Nineveh : ' '  The  trees  that  bore  wool 
they  clipped,  and  they  carded  it  for  garments." 

*  Esther  i,  6. 


CHAPTER  5 

HINDU   SKILL 

Thousands  of  years  before  the  invention  of  cot- 
ton machinery  in  Europe,  Hindu  gins  were  separat- 
ing fiber  from  seed,  Hindu  wheels  were  spinning  the 
lint  into  yarn,  and  frail  Hindu  looms  weaving  these 
yarns  into  textiles. 

The  churka,  or  roller  gin,  was  a  rudimentary 
teak-wood  machine  consisting  of  uprights  support- 
ing two  cylinders,  one  above  the  other,  this  upper 
roller  having  a  handle  at  the  end.  A  woman  turned 
this  windlass,  and  the  cotton  fiber,  fed  between  the 
rollers,  passed  on  through,  while  the  seeds,  too  large 
for  passage,  clattered  against  the  base-board  to  the 
floor. 

The  separated  lint  was  then  bowed,  or  teased,  for 
the  removal  of  rubbish  and  kinks.  The  bow  was  an 
interesting  contrivance  of  elastic  wood,  made  still 
more  vibrant  by  the  tension  of  taut  cords.  A  work- 
man, placing  his  bow  in  contact  with  a  mass  of  lint, 
would  strike  the  resounding  strings  with  a  wooden 
hammer,  so  that  powerful  vibrations  forced  open 
the  knots  of  the  cotton,  shook  free  the  small  rubbish 
of  the  fields,  and  produced  a  mass  of  downy  fleece. 

It  is  difficult  for  a  modern  man,  used  as  he  is  to 
ingenious  mechanical  contrivances,  to  understand 
how  such  rude  devices  could  be  made  to  render  any 
useful  service  whatsoever ;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
deft  fingers  wrought  with  the  bow  and  the  almost 

19 


20         COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

incredibly  simple  East  Indian  loom  so  as  to  produce 
delicate  fabrics  that  have  never  been  surpassed. 

After  the  cotton  had  been  bowed,  Indian  women 
spun  it  either  upon  a  one-thread  wheel,  or  on 
the  ruder  distaff.  A  Manchester  manufacturer  de- 
clared, only  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  that  the  well 
managed  use  of  the  finger  and  thumb  of  the  Indian 
spinner,  patiently  and  carefully  applied  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  thread,  and  the  moisture  at  the  same 
time  communicated  to  it,  are  found  to  have  the  effect 
of  incorporating  the  fibers  of  the  cotton  more  per- 
fectly than  can  be  accomplished  by  our  most  im- 
proved machines.^  Mill,  in  his  *' History  of  British 
India,"  ^  endeavored  to  explain  this  manifest  man- 
ual superiority  by  remarking  that  the  weak  and 
delicate  frame  of  the  Hindu  is  accompanied  with  an 
acuteness  of  external  sense,  particularly  of  touch, 
which  is  altogether  unrivaled;  and  the  flexibility  of 
his  fingers  is  equally  remarkable.  ' '  The  hand  of  the 
Hindu,  therefore,  constitutes  an  organ  adapted  to 
the  finest  operations  of  the  loom,  in  a  degree  which 
is  almost  or  altogether  peculiar  to  himself." 

The  introduction  of  modern  implements  has 
caused  the  decay  of  manual  art  in  the  India 
industry,  and  nowadays  only  the  coarsest  garments 
are  produced  by  the  rustic  hand-looms. 

The  ancient  Hindu  weaver  was  the  most  wonder- 
ful workman  of  all.  Cotton,  having  been  ginned 
and  bowed  and  then  spun  into  delicate  yam,  was 
passed  on  to  this  magical  master-craftsman,  plying 
his  trade  under  the  friendly  shade  of  a  tree.  A 
handful  of  reeds,  with  balances  suspended  from 

1  Isaac  Watts  in  Ene.  Brit.,  9th  edition,  vi,  487. 
2ii,  8 — cited  by  E.  Baines,  Jr.,  in  History  of  the  Cotton  Man- 
ufacture in  Great  Britain:     London,  ISSS';  p.  75. 


HINDU  SKILL  21 

overhanging  branches,  made  up  his  frail  apparatus, 
the  workman  sitting  in  a  pit  beneath  it,  his  great 
toes  treadling  with  looped  threads,  his  hands  wield- 
ing the  wide  shuttle-batten,  the  warp  being  stretched 
out  along  the  ground.  Orme,  an  early  traveler, 
reports  that  when  not  near  the  high  road  or  a  princi- 
pal town,  it  was  difficult  to  find  a  village  in  which 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  was  not  employed  in 
making  up  a  piece  of  cloth ;  ^  and  Mr,  Lowes  Dick- 
inson, in  a  recent  book  of  travel,  still  finds  "the  vil- 
lage weaver  at  his  work,  sitting  on  the  ground  with 
his  feet  in  a  pit  working  the  pedals  of  his  loom; 
while  outside  in  the  garden,  a  youth  was  running  up 
and  down  setting  up,  thread  by  thread,  the  long 
strands  of  the  warp."  * 

"Webs  of  the  woven  wind"  these  fabrics  were 
anciently  called  because  of  their  delicate  beauty. 
Two  Arabian  travelers,  writing  of  the  Hindus  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  say  that  they  made  garments  of  such 
extraordinary  perfection  that  nowhere  else  were  the 
like  to  be  seen;  being  woven  to  that  degree  of  fine- 
ness "that  they  may  be  drawn  through  a  moderate- 
size  ring. ' '  ^  Marco  Polo  mentions  the  coast  of 
Coromandel  as  producing  '  ^  the  finest  and  most  beau- 
tiful cottons. ' '  ^  Ta vernier,  writing  about  1660, 
describes  some  of  the  "calicuts"  he  saw  as  "so  fine 
you  can  hardly  feel  them  in  your  hand,  and  the 
thread,  when  spun,  is  scarce  discernible.'*  Of  one 
muslin  the  texture  was  so  delicate  that  "when  a  man 
puts  it  on,  his  skin  shall  appear  as  plainly  through 
it,  as  if  he  was  quite  naked;  but  the  merchants  are 
not  permitted  to  transport  it,  for  the  governor 

8  Historical   Fragments   of  the  Mogul  Empire,  p.   409;    cited  by 
Baines. 

*  Appearances :     New  York,   1914;  p,  27. 
5  Cited  by  Baines,  pp.  56-58. 


22         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

is  obliged  to  send  it  all  to  the  Great  Mogul's 
seraglio."*  With  the  aid  of  a  bamboo  spindle  not 
much  larger  than  a  darning  needle,  and  rotated  upon 
a  piece  of  hollow  shell  to  keep  from  breaking  the 
thread,  a  single  pound  of  lint  could  be  spun  by 
Indian  craftsmen  to  a  length  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty-three  miles ;  while  the  delicate  woven  fabric  was 
of  both  plain  and  ornamental  variety,  some  white, 
and  some  beautifully  colored.  The  Rev.  William 
Ward,  writing  at  Serampore  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  describes  a  muslin  manufactured  there  as 
so  exceedingly  fine  that  when  ''laid  on  the  grass,  and 
the  dew  has  fallen  upon  it,  it  is  no  longer  dis- 
cernible."^ 

B  Cited  by  Baines,  pp.  56-68. 


CHAPTER  6 

Alexander's  teade  eoutes 

The  genius  of  Alexander  first  made  way  for  the 
wonderful  cotton  weaving  of  India  to  come  into 
Europe,  by  means  of  new  highways  completed  under 
his  generals,  both  overland  and  through  paths  of 
the  sea.  We  know  that  India  carried  on  an  export 
trade  in  cotton  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Amasis,  569- 
525  B.  c. ;  but  the  Persians,  averse  to  water,  content 
with  their  own  mighty  empire,  and  contemptuous  of 
foreign  intermixture,  had  not  extended  their  com- 
merce with  India  beyond  their  own  borders.  When 
Alexander  turned  back  from  the  Hyphasis  and  sailed 
with  his  fleet  down  the  Indus,  his  bold  intention  held 
fast  to  a  demonstration  of  his  belief  that  the  opulent 
commerce  of  India  could  be  transported  through  the 
Persian  Gulf  toward  the  interior  of  Asia  Minor,  as 
well  as  by  the  Arabian  Sea  to  his  noble  namesake 
city,  and  so  spread  out  to  the  world.  After  return- 
ing to  Susa,  he  surveyed  in  person  the  courses  of  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  ordering  the  removal  of  cata- 
racts and  dams  and  of  all  those  obstructions  near 
the  mouths  of  the  rivers  that  had  been  used  by  the 
Persians  for  prevention  of  interior  commerce. 

Susa  and  other  inland  •  cities  were  thus  directly 
connected  with  the  sea.  From  Susa  to  Sardis,  in 
the  extreme  west,  there  ran  a  great  highway,  fifteen 
hundred  miles  long,  into  whose  paths  were  drawn 
all   the    diverse   life   of   the   busy   ancient   world. 

23 


24    COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

*'Cariaiis  and  Cilicians,  Phrygians  and  Cappado- 
cians,  staid  Lydians,  sociable  Greeks,  crafty  Arme- 
nians, rude  traders  from  the  Euxine  shores,  nabobs  of 
Babylon,  Medes  and  Persians,  galloping  couriers 
mounted  on  their  Bokhara  ponies  or  fine  Arab 
steeds,  envoys  with  train  and  state,  peasants  driving 
their  donkeys  laden  with  skins  of  oil  or  wine  or 
sacks  of  grain,  stately  caravans  bearing  the  wares 
and  fabrics  of  the  South  to  exchange  for  the  metals, 
slaves,  and  grain  of  the  North,  travelers  and  traders 
seeking  to  know  and  exploit  the  world — all  were 
there,  and  all  were  safe  under  the  protection  of  an 
empire  the  roadway  of  which  pierced  the  strata  of 
many  tribes  and  many  cultures,  and  helped  set  the 
world  a-mixing. — The  organization  and  regulation 
of  Alexander's  empire  was  later  made  possible 
through  the  roads,  and  they  were  the  conductors  by 
which  East  and  West  were  joined  and  the  first  cos- 
mopolitanism brought  into  being. ' '  ^ 

More  important  even  than  such  channels  of  inter- 
course was  the  water-way,  opened  by  Alexander's 
successors,  in  conformity  with  his  brilliant  designs, 
through  the  Indus  and  the  Arabian  Gulf  to  Alexan- 
dria. Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  with  the  intention  of 
binding  Indian  commerce  the  more  firmly  to  Alex- 
andria, undertook  to  dig  a  canal  between  Suez  and 
the  eastern  branch  of  the  Nile.  Although  this  task 
was  never  finished,  Ptolemy  did  build  the  port  of 
Berenice,  into  which  Indian  commerce  could  come 
without  incurring  the  ancient  danger  of  navigating 
the  northern  end  of  the  Arabian  Gulf ;  and  the  Indo- 
Egyptian  traffic  thus  established  was  prosperously 
maintained    for   ten   centuries.    Goods   landed   at 

iB.    I.   Wheeler,   Alexander   the   Great:     New   York,    1900;    pp. 
196-197. 


ALEXANDER'S  TRADE  ROUTES    25 

Berenice  were  packed  camel-back  three  hundred 
miles  across  the  desert  to  Coptos,  and  thence  floated 
down  the  Nile  to  Alexandria,  from  which  they  were 
trans-shipped  to  the  various  countries  served  by  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  Even  in  the  time  of  Julius 
Caesar  and  Mark  Antony,  Alexandria,  as  Ferrero^ 
has  said,  was  the  Paris  of  the  ancient  world. 
''What  was  there  at  Rome  to  compare  with  Alex- 
andria?" he  asks, — Rome,  in  spite  of  its  imperial 
power,  abandoned  to  a  fearful  disorder  by  the  dis- 
regard of  factions,  encumbered  with  ruin,  its  streets 
narrow  and  wretched,  provided  as  yet  with  but  a 
single  forum,  narrow  and  plain,  the  sole  impressive 
monument  of  which  was  the  theater  of  Pompey; 
Rome,  where  the  life  was  yet  crude,  and  objects  of 
luxury  so  rare  that  they  had  to  be  brought  from  the 
distant  Orient?  At  Alexandria,  instead,  the  Paris 
of  the  ancient  world,  were  to  be  found  all  the  best 
and  most  beautiful  things  of  the  earth.  There  was 
a  sumptuosity  of  public  edifices  that  the  ancients 
never  tire  of  extolling — the  quay  seven  stadia  long, 
the  light-house  famous  all  over  the  Mediterranean, 
the  marvelous  Zoological  Garden,  the  Museum,  the 
Gymnasium,  innumerable  temples,  the  unending 
palace  of  the  Ptolemies.  There  was  an  abundance, 
unheard  of  for  those  times,  of  objects  of  luxury — 
rugs,  glass,  stuffs,  papyruses,  jewels,  artistic  pot- 
tery— because  they  made  all  those  things  at  Alex- 
andria. There  was  an  abundance,  greater  than  else- 
where, of  silk,  of  perfumes,  of  gems,  of  all  the  things 
imported  from  the  extreme  East,  because  through 
Alexandria  passed  one  of  the  most  frequented  routes 
of  Indo-Chinese  commerce.    Arrian,  writing  in  the 

2  Characters  and  Events  of  Eoman  History:     New  York,   1909; 
p.  55. 


26  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

year  131  a.  d.,  says  that  at  that  time  ''Indian  cot- 
tons of  large  width,  fine  cottons,  muslins,  plain  and 
figured,  and  cotton  for  stuffing  couches  and  beds," 
were  brought  by  water  from  India  and  launched 
by  way  of  Egypt  toward  the  countries  of  the 
West.s 

In  view  of  the  proximity  of  Egypt  to  Persia  and 
India,  and  of  the  great  importance  of  the  cotton  crop 
in  Egypt  to-day,  it  is  a  striking  and  unexplained  fact 
that  Egyptian  cotton  as  we  know  it  has  developed 
from  a  garden  plant  of  the  Peruvian  type  into  a 
field  crop  only  within  the  last  two  hundred  years, 
the  earliest  record  of  it  going  back  no  further  than 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  is  all  the 
more  strange  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  history  of 
the  Nile  Valley,  which  has  been  laid  bare  to  the 
period  of  five  thousand  years  before  Christ,  con- 
tains abundant  remains  of  other  textile  fabrics,  of 
the  very  earliest  periods;  but  fragments  of  cotton 
are  not  found  at  all,  and  even  the  literary  trace  of 
it  ends  with  about  two  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
such  '* antiquity"  being  quite  negligible  in  the  his- 
tory of  Egypt.  There  is  a  reference  to  it  on  the 
famous  Rosetta  stone,  Herodotus  describes  a  gift 
of  a  fine  cotton  corselet  sent  by  Amasis  to  the  Lace- 
daemonians,^ Pliny  records  the  growth  of  the  plant 
in  Upper  Egypt,  and  there  are  hints  of  it  in  the  time 
of  the  Ptolemies;  but  here  the  scant  record  ends. 
Professor  Balls  does  indeed  infer,  from  the  exist- 
ence of  several  wild  cottons  in  the  Sudan,  that  some 
lucky  excavation,  or  perhaps  a  casual  glance  through 
a  microscope,  may  suddenly  extend  the  known  his- 
tory of  cotton  in  Egypt  by  two  or  three  thousand 

8  Periplus  Maris  Erythrsei,  cited  by  Henry  Lee. 
4  Herodotus,  iii,  47. 


ALEXANDER'S  TRADE  ROUTES    27 

years ; "  but  as  yet  it  is  regarded  as  a  modern  upstart 
in  comparison  with  the  linen  mummy-wrappings 
that  establish  the  Egyptian  antiquity  of  flax. 

bW.  Lawrence  Balls,  The  Cotton  Plant  in  Egypt:     London,  1912; 
p.  2.    See  also  Chapter  73. 


CHAPTEE  7 

EGYPTIAN   MUMMIES   AND   THE   MICEOSCOPB 

The  microscope,  which  disclosed  in  1834  the  sur- 
prising fact  that  Egyptian  mummies  never  wore 
cotton,  revealed  at  the  same  time  the  secret  struc- 
ture of  the  cotton  fiber  that  gives  it  such  peculiar 
excellence  in  weaving.  Mr.  James  Thomson  of  Cli- 
theroe  presented  to  the  Koyal  Society,  in  the  year 
just  named,  a  paper  **0n  the  Mummy  Cloth  of 
Egypt,"  ^  in  which  he  proved  incontestably,  from 
innumerable  microscopic  investigations  of  mummy- 
wrappings,  that  cotton  was  not  thus  used  by  the 
Egyptians;  basing  his  conclusion  on  the  interesting 
fact,  discovered  in  the  course  of  his  investigations, 
that  cotton  invariably  shows,  under  the  microscope, 
a  twisted  or  corkscrew  structure,  while  the  fibers  of 
linen  are  straight.  Never  once,  throughout  experi- 
ments conducted  from  1834  to  the  present,  has  a 
trace  of  the  distinctive  corkscrew  structure  of  cotton 
been  detected  in  the  ancient  fabrics  of  Egypt. 

The  filament  of  cotton,  as  Mr.  Thomson  pointed 
out  in  his  paper,  resembles  a  transparent  glassy 
tube,  flattened,  and  twisted  around  its  own  axis. 
This  twisted  form  of  the  filament,  which  distin- 
guishes cotton  from  all  other  fibers,  characterizes 
the  fully  ripe  pod;  the  filaments  in  the  unripe  pod 
being  simple  untwisted  cylindrical  tubes,  which 
never  afterwards  twist  if  separated  from  the  plant 

1  Given  as  Appendix  by  Baines,  as  cited. 

28 


EGYPTIAN  MUMMIES  29 

in  an  unripe  condition — ^but  when  the  bolls  ripen, 
the  cylindrical  filaments  collapse  in  the  middle,  so 
that  a  cross-section  roughly  resembles  the  figure  8. 

The  characteristic  twist  of  the  cotton  fiber  is  per- 
manently retained  throughout  all  the  processes  of 
ginning,  spinning,  weaving,  bleaching,  and  dyeing, 
and  even  through  the  hardest  wearing  and  washing, 
until  the  material  is  worn  into  rags.  In  fact,  the 
violent  process  of  reducing  these  rags  to  pulp  for 
the  manufacture  of  paper  produces  no  change  in 
the  native  twist  of  the  fiber,  so  that  the  presence  of 
any  smallest  vestige  of  cotton  may  be  detected,  with 
the  aid  of  a  microscope,  in  paper  of  supposedly  all- 
linen  manufacture. 

Now,  it  is  precisely  this  corkscrew  character  of 
the  cotton  fiber  that  affords  its  advantage  in  cloth 
making.  **The  reason  why  cotton  can  be  spun  into 
very  fine,  strong  yarns  is  because  the  cotton  fibers 
are  of  a  very  fine  diameter  and  are  flat,  twisted  rib- 
bons in  structure,  which  fact  enables  them  to  'kink' 
together  and  interlock,  thus  forming  a  strong,  com- 
pact thread.'' 2  Mercerized  cotton  is  formed  by 
stretching  yarn  on  a  frame  and  submerging  it  in  a 
solution  of  caustic  soda,  which  makes  the  fibers  swell 
and  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  lose  their  twisted 
structure.  They  thus  become  smoother,  and  take 
on  a  luster  like  silk. 

The  microscope  also  discloses  the  fact  that  wool, 
as  it  comes  from  the  back  of  the  sheep,  is  covered 
with  scales,  so  that,  when  the  wool  fibers  are  worked 
and  massed  closely  together,  the  scales  open  out  and 
interlock  with  one  another,  the  interlocking  of  these 
scales  enabling  the  wool  to  be  * 'felted." 

2K.  B.  Lamb  on  "Textile  Fibers  and  Their  Characteristics,"  in 
Scientific  American:    New  York,  Jan.  8,  1916,  p.  56. 


CHAPTER  8 

FEOM  EOME  TO   SPAIN  * 

If  India  was  the  land  of  cotton,  while  China  was 
characterized  by  the  production  of  silk  as  Egypt  by 
the  manufacture  of  linen,  then  Greece  and  Rome 
were  preeminently  the  almost  exclusive  dominion  of 
wool.  It  is  true  that  the  Greeks  knew  of  fine  mus- 
lins as  a  precious  curiosity,  naming  these  goods 
**Gangitiki"  because  of  their  source  near  the 
Ganges;  and  that  by  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century  before  Christ,  Indian  raiment  had  so  far 
encroached  on  the  aristocratic  dominion  of  the 
peplum  and  the  toga  that  a  popular  comedy  of  that 
period  contains  reference  to  muslins  and  calicoes; 
but  the  importation  does  not  seem  either  then  or 
later  to  have  attained  to  any  great  commercial  im- 
portance. Yet  cotton  became  eventually  the  Roman 
cloth  of  luxury,  at  least.  From  India  and  Persia 
the  Latin  conquerors  borrowed  the  custom  of  using 
cotton  awnings  as  protection  against  the  rays  of  the 
sun.  Livy,  for  example,  says  that  Lentulus  Spin- 
ther  in  the  year  63  b.  c.  introduced  cotton  awnings 
in  the  theater  at  the  ApoUinarian  games;  and  that 
Caesar  afterwards  covered  the  forum  with  them,  as 
also  the  sacred  way  from  his  own  house  to  the  Capi- 
toline  hill — "which  appeared  more  wonderful  than 
the  gladiatorial  exhibition  itself."    Moreover,  cot- 

1  Chief  authorities:  Baines,  as  cited;  Henry  Lee;  Bulletin  No.  33, 
as  cited. 

30 


FROM  ROME  TO  SPAIN  31 

ton  sails  were  sometimes  seen  on  Roman  ships.  But 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  Oriental  weavings  ever 
broke  beyond  the  bound  of  luxuries  at  Rome, 
although  in  Egypt  they  became  so  abundant  and 
inexpensive  that  Antony  could  afford  to  give  his 
men  the  comparative  comfort  of  light  cotton  clothes. 
But  linen  persisted  in  its  domination  of  the  Egyp- 
tian clothing  market  for  a  very  long  period,  so  that 
the  cultivation  of  cotton  was  not  undertaken  there 
on  any  considerable  scale  until  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century .^ 

This  was  a  thousand  years  after  its  cultivation 
and  manufacture  had  become  an  important  item  in 
the  industries  of  Arabia  and  Syria,  and  had  even 
fringed  the  northern  coast  of  Africa.  By  the  Sara- 
cens and  Moors  a  knowledge  of  the  plant  and  its 
uses  was  brought  into  Spain  in  the  year  712  a.  d., 
vast  fields  being  whitened  with  its  fleecy  growth  and 
looms  set  up  in  almost  every  hamlet,  cultivation  and 
manufacture  alike  increasing  in  importance  until 
the  expulsion  of  the  Moors  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  It  was  during  this  Spanish  regime  that 
cotton  paper  began  to  be  made ;  not  to  be  confused, 
however,  with  the  paper  from  linen  rags  that  writers 
so  highly  esteemed;  and  thus  cotton  began  to  take 
the  literary  scepter  away  from  the  ancient  papyrus 
plant  in  Egypt. 

During  Mahometan  rulership  in  Europe  the 
Egyptian  maritime  commerce  was  closed,  and  trans- 
portation once  more  followed  overland  routes  by 
means  of  the  stately  and  picturesque  caravan. 
Those  famous  "Damascus"  cottons  of  early  times 
were  so-called  merely  because  that  city  was  a  great 
distributing  depot  for  India  goods,  the  two  great 

2  See  Chapter  73. 


32    COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

annual  caravans  of  merchants  and  pilgrims  which 
started  from  there  and  from  Cairo  meeting  by  pre- 
arrangement  at  Mecca,  where  they  exchanged  com- 
modities and  then  turned  homeward  again, — great 
fleets  of  the  desert,  touching  at  port  after  port  on 
their  interminable  voyages,  and  thus  sowing  the 
cotton  influence,  whether  in  the  form  of  the  actual 
staple  or  in  guise  of  fabulous  legends  of  the  Vege- 
table Lamb,  through  all  the  principalities  of  the 
East. 

Caravans  for  strictly  commercial  purposes  pro- 
ceeded at  fixed  times  on  voyages  of  enormous  extent, 
penetrating  even  to  the  farthest  confines  of  China. 
Until  only  a  few  years  ago  China  and  Russia  main- 
tained a  regular  system  of  intercommunication  by 
caravan,  this  system  covering  a  distance  of  more 
than  six  thousand  miles,  and  stretching  for  much  of 
this  distance  through  uninhabited  desert,  although 
the  tedium  of  the  journey  was  lightened  now  and 
again  by  touching  at  towns  in  the  midst  of  their  fes- 
tival fairs,  such  as  the  famous  annual  fair  at  Nijni 
Novgorod. 

As  many  as  a  thousand  camels  sometimes  made  up 
the  medieval  caravan,  harnessed  in  strings  of  fifty 
or  more,  the  leaders  gay  with  colorful  trappings  and 
tassels,  an  unladen  donkey  preceding  the  party  *  *  for 
luck."  Packed  on  the  back  of  these  swaying  ships 
of  the  desert,  or  wafted  by  its  own  sails  from  the 
shore  of  one  sea  to  another,  or  floating  down  the 
Indus  and  the  Nile,  cotton  wended  its  journey  west- 
ward through  the  centuries,  until  its  strands  at 
length  girdled  the  globe. 

Cotton  sail-cloth  became  the  distinguishing  product 
of  Barcelona  after  the  advent  of  the  Saracens  and 
Moors,  Spanish  looms  also  becoming  famous  for 


FROM  ROME  TO  SPAIN  33 

fustians  and  other  stout  stuffs.  Grenada,  Cordova, 
and  Seville  were  celebrated  seats  of  the  industry  for 
several  hundreds  of  years.  But  with  the  expulsion 
of  the  Saracens  the  European  cotton  manufacture 
fell  into  decay,  not  to  flourish  again  until  it  partic- 
ipated in  that  great  efflorescence  of  human  achieve- 
ment known  as  the  Renaissance,  which  unfolded  in 
Italy  and  spread  over  every  country  in  Europe. 


CHAPTEE  9 

COTTON  AND   THE  RENAISSANCE 

,  Ebybaud  has  deftly  indicated  the  influence  of  the 
Renaissance  upon  raiment.  During  the  Middle 
Ages,  he  says,  scant  attention  was  given  to  refine- 
ment in  clothing.  **  Neither  chivalry  nor  the  Middle 
Ages  had  any  taste  for  it ;  monks  wore  the  cowl,  the 
men  of  the  sword  wore  armor;  clean  linen  hecame 
almost  a  matter  of  over-refinement. — But  the  epoch 
of  the  Renaissance,"  he  continues,  "lends  itself 
more  to  it ;  the  awakening  of  the  arts  then  introduces 
luxury,  and  with  luxury  the  care  of  the  person. — 
From  this  moment  the  sphere  of  activity  extends, 
and  unexpected  riches  are  acquired  for  the  needs 
and  enjoyment  of  man."  ^ 

Cotton  was  very  early  responsive  to  the  reawak- 
ened needs  of  mankind,  being  quickened  into  life 
again  in  Italy,  chief  source  of  the  mighty  Revival. 
First  Venice,  then  Genoa,  and  then  Venice  again, 
sought  control  of  East  Indian  trade;  the  Genoese 
uniting  with  the  Greeks  to  recapture  Constantinople, 
with  its  oriental  commerce,  after  Venice  had  held  it 
for  half  a  century;  the  Venetians  then  turning  suc- 
cessfully to  the  acquirement  of  the  Indo-Egyptian 
trade-routes  through  a  treaty  with  the  Mahometans, 
so  that  Alexander's  channels  of  intercourse  were 
once  more  opened  to  the  world. 

From  this  moment  cotton  weaves  itself  continu- 

1  L.  Reybaud,  Le  Coton ;  Son  Regime,  Ses  ProblfemeSi  Son  Influence 
en  Europe:     Paris,  1863;  p.  4. 

34 


COTTON  AND  THE  RENAISSANCE      35 

ously  through  the  history  of  Europe,  in  an  ever- 
widening  pattern.  Venice  becomes  preeminent  for 
the  distribution  of  cotton  supplies,  especially  sought 
after  by  the  people  of  Northern  Europe,  who,  within 
fifty  years,  established  a  great  manufacture  of  their 
own  in  Saxony,  Suabia,  and  Holland,  but  especially 
in  Flanders.  Venice  was  the  cotton  market  of  the 
world,  the  Liverpool  of  those  days ;  Antwerp,  the  seat 
of  manufacturing,  corresponding  to  Manchester.^ 

But  the  impulse  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  not  to 
be  hemmed  in  even  by  continental  confines,  again  set 
in  motion  that  world  movement  which  had  been  re- 
tarded for  so  many  centuries  since  Alexander  first 
pushed  it  westward  from  the  Himalayas  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Indus.  Influenced  by  a  desire  for  freer 
intercourse  with  the  commercial  store-houses  of 
India,  wherein  by  no  means  the  least  precious  com- 
modity was  the  world's  cotton  supply,  Italy  and 
Portugal  sent  forward  in  opposite  directions  two 
quests  for  the  key  to  the  Orient — Columbus  the 
Genoese  sailing  westward  in  1492,  and  Vasco  da 
Gama  from  Lisbon  eastward  in  1497,  both  seeking 
India. 

Gama  was  successful.  Rounding  the  continent  of 
Africa  and  touching  near  Zanzibar,  he  sailed  across 
the  Indian  Ocean  described  by  Arrian  in  connection 
with  the  early  history  of  the  cotton  commerce,  and 
landed  at  Calicut,  the  city  of  calicoes,  ten  months  and 
two  days  out  of  Lisbon.  Here  he  set  up  a  marble 
pillar  as  a  sign  of  conquest  and  in  proof  of  discovery 
of  India.  After  his  return  to  Portugal  another  fleet 
was  sent  out  under  Cabral,  who  established  a  factory 
at  Calicut. 

2G.  von  Schulze-Gaevernitz,  Der  Grossbetrieb :  Leipzig,  1892; 
p.  25. 


36         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

Vasco  da  Gama,  commanding  a  second  expedition 
several  years  later,  founded  a  factory  at  Mozam- 
bique, in  the  Portuguese  possessions  on  the  east 
coast  of  Africa, — these  being  probably  the  first  ex- 
amples of  the  penetration  of  western  mechanical 
enterprise  into  the  Orient.  A  whole  chain  of  forts 
and  factories  was  shortly  established  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Portuguese  trade,  ships  plying  between 
all  the  ports  from  the  Cape  to  Canton. 

Venice,  thrown  into  alarm,  formed  an  alliance  with 
the  Turks,  but  the  dauntless  Portuguese  maintained, 
at  the  cost  of  much  blood  and  treasure,  their  mastery 
of  the  Indian  Ocean,  routing  the  Venetians  com- 
pletely in  this  contest  for  Oriental  supremacy,  and 
reshaping  the  channels  of  commerce  by  shipment 
from  India  around  Africa  to  Lisbon.  The  immediate 
result  was  a  plentiful  supply  throughout  Europe  of 
Indian  products,  including  cotton  goods,  and  a  con- 
sequent reduction  in  price ;  but  this  situation,  in  turn, 
brought  about  a  greatly  increased  demand  for  these 
plentiful  and  inexpensive  goods  from  the  Orient,  so 
that  the  cotton  trade  received  the  greatest  impetus 
that  had  thus  far  occurred  in  its  history. 

Vasco  da  Gama's  voyage,  as  Draper  says,  was  to 
the  last  degree  important  in  its  effect  on  the  future 
development  of  Europe.  The  commercial  arrange- 
ments of  Europe  were  completely  dislocated ;  Venice 
was  deprived  of  her  mercantile  supremacy;  the 
hatred  of  Genoa  was  gratified;  prosperity  left  the 
Italian  towns;  Egypt,  hitherto  supposed  to  possess 
a  preeminent  advantage  as  offering  the  best  avenue 
to  India,  suddenly  lost  her  position ;  the  commercial 
monopolies  so  long  in  the  hands  of  the  European 
Jews  were  broken  down.  The  discovery  of  America 
and  passage  of  the  Cape  were  the  first  steps  of  that 


COTTON  AND  THE  RENAISSANCE       37 

prodigious  maritime  development  soon  exhibited  by 
Western  Europe.  And  since  commercial  prosperity 
is  forthwith  followed  by  the  production  of  men  and 
concentration  of  wealth,  and,  moreover,  implies  an 
energetic  intellectual  condition,  it  appeared  before 
long  that  the  centers  of  population,  of  wealth,  of  in- 
tellect, were  shifting  westwardly.  The  front  of 
Europe  was  suddenly  changed;  the  British  Islands, 
hitherto  in  a  sequestered  and  eccentric  position,  were 
all  at  once  put  in  the  van  of  the  new  movement.^ 
Englishmen  took  to  the  sea,  and  the  great  Age  of 
Adventure,  led  by  Cabot,  Hawkins,  and  Drake,  laid 
the  foundations  of  a  new  international  commerce. 
Shipbuilding  became  a  famous  British  business.  By 
means  of  newly  developed  trade-routes,  both  East 
and  West  were  tapped  for  such  wares  as  cotton, 
silks,  tobacco,  tea,  coffee,  cocoa,  sugar,  rum,  spices, 
oranges,  lemons,  raisins,  currants,  rice  and  other 
strange  products  with  which  Englishmen  had  there- 
tofore somehow  dispensed.  The  carrying  trade  of 
the  world  became  an  international  bone  of  conten- 
tion. Spain  and  Portugal  having  been  crippled  in 
warfare,  England  next  struck  a  blow  at  Holland  in 
the  famous  Navigation  Acts  of  1650-1651,  requiring 
that  all  imports  for  England  or  any  crown  colonies 
should  be  carried  in  English  bottoms  or  in  ships  of 
the  producing  country.  The  ensuing  wars  resulted 
in  British  acquisition  of  the  New  Netherlands  col- 
onies, embracing  the  present  States  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  thus  driving  out  the  wedge  that  had 
divided  New  England  from  Virginia  and  Maryland. 
With  the  subsequent  settlement  of  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia,  the  thirteen  American  colonies  were  com- 

8  J.   W.   Draper,   A   History   of  the   Intellectual   Development   of 
Europe:     New  York,  1863;  pp.  449-450. 


38         COTTON  AS  A  WOBLD  POWER 

plete.  New  imports  from  the  colonies  and  the 
Orient  called  for  an  increased  body  of  exports,  and 
thus  provided  a  powerful  stimulus  to  British  manu- 
facturing industry  as  a  means  in  the  development 
of  this  newly  established  international  commerce.* 
But  this  is  to  run  ahead  of  our  story. 

4 A.  F.  Pollard,  The  History  of  England;  a  Study  in  Political 
Evolution:  London,  n.  d.,  ch's  vi,  vii.  ("The  Discovery  of  the  New 
World  began  that  economic  revolution  which  changed  every  manu- 
facturing town  into  a  mere  booth  in  the  world's  fair." — George 
Bernard  Shaw  in  Fabian  Essays:     London,  1889;  p.  174.) 


CHAPTER  10 

THE  WEAVEE  KING 

King  Edwakd  HI  (1327-1377)  is  called  by  Hallam 
"the  father  of  English  commerce."  He  taught  his 
people,  who  monopolized  the  sheep  culture  of  Europe 
at  a  time  when  Europeans  wore  woolen  garments 
almost  exclusively,  to  weave  wool  as  well  as  to  grow 
it;  and  thus  augmented  the  national  wealth  by 
adding  the  profits  of  manufacture  to  the  revenues 
derived  from  a  monopoly  of  production.  A  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  before  Vasco  da  Gama  **  dis- 
covered India,"  and  just  at  the  time  when  ** Sir  John 
Maundevile"  professed  to  be  forming  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary, 
Edward  was  taking  advantage  of  dissensions  among 
the  Flemish  experts  in  wool  weaving  to  invite  them 
to  settle  in  England.^ 

This  he  did  with  such  marked  sagacity  that 
throughout  his  entire  reign,  and  for  the  better  part 
of  a  century,  Flemish  weavers  continued  to  emigrate 
to  England,  and  by  the  introduction  of  that  **  mys- 
tery" for  which  Flanders  had  become  famous,  im- 
proved so  greatly  the  crude  British  business  in  weav- 
ing that  wool  became  what  cotton  now  is  to  the 
Southeastern  States  in  America — the  chief  source  of 

1  H.  Hallam,  View  of  the  State  of  Europe  During  the  Middle  Ages ; 
New  York,  1896,  vol.  ii,  p.  612. 

39 


40  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

revenue,  and,  indeed,  the  principal  article  of  national 
export;  so  that  wool  was  styled  in  ancient  records 
**the  flower  and  strength,  the  revenue  and  blood  of 
England,"  as  is  still  symbolized  by  the  wool-sack 
whereon  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  sits  as  he  pre- 
sides over  the  House  of  Lords. 

Down  to  Edward's  time  England  had  been  almost 
entirely  dependent  on  the  Netherlands  for  comfort- 
able clothing ;  but  the  *  *  father  of  English  conunerce ' ' 
brought  it  to  pass  that  instead  of  importing  more 
than  half  of  its  cloth  and  practically  all  of  its  com- 
fortable clothing,  as  England  had  done  when  he 
ascended  the  throne,  by  the  close  of  his  reign  the 
realm  was  exporting  British  cloth  of  three  times  the 
volume  of  its  imports. 

Edward  for  his  pains  was  nicknamed  *'the  wool 
merchant"  by  his  royal  brother  in  France,  but,  noth- 
ing daunted,  he  utilized  to  the  fullest  extent  his  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  a  Flemish  count  to  woo 
the  weavers.  The  quaint  Fuller,  in  his  * '  Church  His- 
tory," gives  a  delightful  account  of  the  persuasive 
arguments  used  by  the  King's  agents  in  Flanders  to 
show  how  much  * 'better  off"  the  operatives  would 
find  themselves  in  England.  In  Flanders,  he  says, 
it  was  a  case  of  early  up  and  late  in  bed,  and  all  day 
hard  work  and  harder  fare,  and  all  to  enrich  their 
masters  without  any  profit  to  themselves.  But,  oh ! 
how  happy  should  they  be  if  they  would  but  come 
over  to  Eligland,  bringing  their  mystery,  which 
would  provide  them  welcome  in  all  places!  Here 
they  should  feed  on  fat  beef  and  mutton  till  nothing 
but  their  fulness  should  stint  their  stomachs.  The 
richest  yeomen  in  England  would  not  disdain  to 
marry  their  daughters  unto  them,  and  such  the  Eng- 


THE  WEAVER  KING  41 

lish  beauties  that  most  envious  foreigners  could  not 
but  commend  them !  ^ 

In  1328  the  first  important  colony  of  persuaded 
Flemish  weavers  settled  at  Manchester,  and  three 
years  later  seventy  families  came  over.  These  weav- 
ers produced  the  famous  ** Manchester  cottons,'* 
which  in  reality  were  not  made  of  cotton  at  all,  but 
of  wool.  The  fact  remains,  however,  that  the  settle- 
ment of  these  Flemings  in  Manchester  provided  the 
means  of  developing  that  part  of  Lancashire  to  a 
high  degree  of  expertness  in  the  weaving  industry, 
so  that  when  time  at  last  was  ripe  and  *' vegetable 
wool"  began  to  be  manufactured  in  England  it  was 
Lancashire  that  gave  the  country  that  primacy  in 
cotton  manufacture  which  England  still  maintains, 
and  which  constitutes  to-day  its  greatest  industry, 
although  all  the  raw  material  must  cross  either  the 
Red  and  Arabian  Seas  or  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

The  immediate  result  of  Flemish  immigration 
was,  as  Edward  so  shrewdly  had  planned,  an  enor- 
mous stimulus  to  the  wool  trade.  Fuller  says  that 
before  the  Flemings  came  to  Manchester  the  English 
knew  no  better  what  to  do  with  their  wool  than  the 
sheep  that  wore  it,  for  their  best  clothes  were  no 
better  than  friezes;  while  Thorold  Rogers  proffers 
the  chilling  assertion  that  a  man  in  an  English  winter 
might  as  well  have  dressed  himself  with  a  hurdle  as 
with  English  woolen  cloth ;  ^  but  from  this  time  on 
Britain  grew  able  to  compete  even  with  Flanders  it- 
self, and  by  a  unique  policy  of  protection  in  the  ex- 
portation of  raw  wool  so  fostered  the  weaving  in- 

2  Cited  by  T.  Ellison,  in  The  Cotton  Trade  of  Great  Britain :  Lon- 
don,  1886;   pp.  4-5. 

3  J.  E.  Thoroid  Eogers,  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History: 
London,  1909;  p.  286. 


42         COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

dustry  at  home  as  to  develop  heavy  exports  of  the 
manufactured  article, — Flanders,  with  Germany, 
Eussia,  Italy,  and  Spain  ranging  up  at  length  among 
the  buyers,  and  Spain  at  the  last  playing  into  her 
enemy's  hand  by  destroying  the  Flemish  weaving 
industry  altogether,  the  weavers  fleeing  in  large 
numbers  to  augment  the  earlier  immigration  into 
England. 

Thus  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  sixteenth  century 
**wool  was  king"  in  England  quite  to  the  same  de- 
gree that  cotton  came  to  be  king  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  in  America  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. From  1360  British  resources  were  enormously 
enlarged  by  adding  to  a  natural  monopoly  the  incre- 
ment accruing  from  skilful  manufacture  thereof,  just 
as  the  Carolinas  and  other  Southern  States  are  now 
undertaking  to  do  with  their  cotton  crop.*  In  this 
way  woolen  manufacture  had  become,  prior  to  the 
Eenaissance  period,  the  pet  industry  of  England, 
and  a  lively  struggle  ensued  when  cotton  began  to 
come  in  by  way  of  Gama's  new  route,  and  dispute  the 
primacy. 

Note.  The  practical  monopoly  which  the  English  possessed  of 
wool  was  less  due  to  the  climate  and  soil  of  England,  than  it  was 
to  the  maintenance  of  order  in  the  kingdom.  For  a  long  time,  every 
one  in  England,  from  the  King  to  the  serf,  was  an  agriculturist. 
After  the  landowners  had  been  constrained  to  give  up  arable  farming, 
they  still  remained  sheep  masters,  produced  wool  and  sold  it.  Now 
when,  owing  to  the  diffusing  or  distribution  of  property,  every  one 
is  interested  in  maintaining  the  rights  of  property,  there  is  very 
little  temptation  given  to  theft  or  violence,  and  every  inclination 
to  detect  and  punish  it.  Hence,  Englishmen  could  keep  sheep,  the 
most  defenseless  of  agricultural  animals.  Every  one  who  knows 
anything  about  the  state  of  western  Europe  from  the  thirteenth  to 
the  seventeenth  century,  knows  that  the  husbandmen  did  not  keep 
sheep,  for  they  would  have  certainly  been  plundered  of  them  by  the 
nobles  and  their  retainers  if  they  had.  The  King's  peace  was  the 
protection  of  the  sheep  master. — England  then  had  a  monopoly  of 

4  See  Chapter  69. 


THE  WEAVER  KING  43 

wool.  The  monopoly  was  so  complete,  and  the  demand  for  the  prod- 
uce so  urgent,  that  the  English  Parliaments  were  able  to  grant  an 
export  duty  on  wool  equal  to  more  than  the  market  value  of  the 
produce  without  diminishing  its  price.  In  other  words,  the  export 
duty  was  paid  by  the  foreign  consumer,  a  financial  success  which 
every  government  has  desired,  and  in  which  all,  with  this  English 
exception,  have  failed. — Rogers,  as  cited,  pp.  9-10. 


CHAPTER  11 

COTTON   ENTERS  ENGLAND 

Cotton  first  makes  its  appearance  in  English  his- 
tory as  a  luminant,  the  first  recorded  importation, 
so  early  as  the  year  1298,  being  one  of  candle-wicks, 
at  that  time  a  most  important  commodity.^  Other 
shipments  wandered  in  from  time  to  time,  but  the 
aspect  of  the  East  Indian  trade  was  insignificant 
until  the  new  routes  had  become  fully  established, 
and  Lisbon's  plenty  began  to  overflow  her  own  nar- 
row borders.  By  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  Low  Countries  were  casting  jealous  eyes  toward 
Portugal,  so  lucrative  had  the  Oriental  commerce  be- 
come; and  expanding  England  vied  with  Holland 
in  the  establishment  of  a  great  trading  agency  for  the 
exploitation  of  East  Indian  markets.  On  the  last 
day  of  the  year  1600  the  British  East  India  Com- 
pany received  a  royal  charter.  Having  obtained 
permission  from  native  princes  to  establish  forts  and 
factories,  this  East  India  Company  was  in  1624  in- 
vested with  the  plenary  rights  of  government. 
Shortly  thereafter  the  importation  of  cotton  fabrics 
began  in  earnest,  and  the  spider  goddess  of  India 
enlisted  straightway  in  a  contest  with  the  stout 
Minerva  of  British  industry  for  the  weaving  su- 
premacy of  the  world.^ 

The  first  arrival  of  Indian  fabrics  occurred  in 
1631.    Ten  years  later  one  hears  of  Manchester 

1  Baines,  as  cited,  p.  96.  2  See  Appendix  B. 

44 


COTTON  ENTERS  ENGLAND     45 

weavers  buying  in  London  cotton  wool  imported 
from  Cyprus  and  Smyrna,  working  the  same  into 
fustians,  vermillions,  and  dimities,  and  then  return- 
ing it  to  London,  ''where  the  same  is  vented  and  sold, 
and  not  seldom  sent  into  forrain  parts,  who  have 
means,  at  far  easier  termes,  to  provide  themselves  of 
the  said  first  materials."  ^ 

Almost  immediately  the  cry  of  the  commercial 
patriot  was  uplifted  in  hoarsQ  clamor  for  the  pro- 
tection of  home  industries.  The  war  of  the  pam- 
phleteer raged  violently,  all  of  the  arguments  being 
on  the  side  of  British  wool,  while  the  insidious  cot- 
ton fiber  silently  spun  its  webs  over  England.  * '  In- 
stead of  green  sey,"  cried  one  voice  of  woolen  lamen- 
tation, *4s  now  used  painted  and  Indian-stained  and 
striped  calico ;  and  instead  of  a  perpetuana  or  shal- 
loon to  lyne  men's  coats  with,  is  used  sometimes  a 
glazened  calico,  which  in  the  whole  is  not  above  12d 
cheaper,  and  abundantly  worse.  And  sometimes  is 
used  a  Bangale,  that  is  brought  from  India,  both  for 
lynings  to  coats,  and  for  petticoats  too ;  yet  our  Eng- 
lish ware  is  better  and  cheaper  than  this,  only  it  is 
thinner  for  the  summer.  To  remedy  this,  it  would 
be  very  necessary  to  lay  a  very  high  impost  upon  all 
such  commodities  as  these  are,  and  that  no  callicoes 
or  other  sort  of  linen  be  suffered  to  be  glazened. ' '  * 

Measurable  legislative  relief  was  granted,  at  least 
to  the  dead,  by  the  passage  of  a  parliamentary  Act 
in  1666  providing  that  every  dead  person  should  be 
buried  in  a  woolen  shroud,  in  default  of  which  the 
persons  directing  the  funeral  should  forfeit  the  sum 

3  Lewes  Roberts  in  The  Treasure  of  Traffic,  1642,  cited  by  Baines, 
p.  100. 

*The  Ancient  Trades  Decayed  and  Repaired  Again:  London, 
1678;  pp.  16-17;  see  Baines,  as  cited,  p.  77. 


46    COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

of  £5.^  *'If  the  people  while  alive  were  so  perverse 
and  unpatriotic  as  to  prefer  foreign  to  domestic 
fabrics  for  their  vestments,"  says  Ellison,  ''they 
should  at  all  events  not  be  allowed  to  carry  their 
fripperies  with  them  to  the  grave."  ^ 

In  1696  a  pamphlet  entitled  The  Naked  Truth 
declared  that  muslins  were  ''becoming  the  general 
wear  in  England";  and  then  the  writer,  intending  to 
be  contemptuous,  pays  a  tribute  rivaling  that  of 
Tavernier  to  the  delicate  shadow-like  quality  of  the 
Indian  weave.  "Fashion  is  truly  termed  a  witch," 
he  says;  "the  dearer  and  scarcer  any  commodity,  the 
more  the  mode ;  305.  a  yard  for  muslins,  and  only  the 
shadow  of  a  commodity  when  procured ! "  ^ 

But  fashion's  slaves  continued  to  bow  down  be- 
fore the  cotton  boll,  as  Brahmin  priests  had  done 
three  thousand  years  before  them;  although  "the 
effect  of  such  frippery  was  that  our  gold  and  silver 
went  abroad,  and  that  much  excellent  English  dra- 
pery lay  in  our  warehouses  till  it  was  devoured  by 
the  moths. — And  was  it  not  a  shame  to  see  a  gentle- 
man whose  ancestors  had  worn  nothing  but  stuffs 
made  by  English  workmen  out  of  English  fleeces, 

6  30  Car.  II,  st.  i.  c.  3.  Blackstone,  in  his  discussion  of  personal 
liberty,  gives  an  amusing  defense  of  this  law:  "The  statute  of 
King  Edward  IV,  which  forbade  the  fine  gentlemen  of  those  times 
(under  the  degree  of  a  lord)  to  wear  pikes  upon  their  shoes  or 
boots  of  more  than  two  inches  in  length,  was  a  law  that  savored 
of  oppression;  because,  however  ridiculous  the  fashion  then  in  use 
might  appear,  the  restraining  it  by  pecuniary  penalties  could  serve 
no  purpose  of  common  utility.  But  the  statute  of  King  Charles 
II,  which  prescribes  a  thing  seemingly  as  indififerent  (a  dress  for 
the  dead,  who  are  all  ordered  to  be  hurried  in  woolen),  is  a  law 
consistent  with  public  liberty;  for  it  encourages  the  staple  trade, 
on  which  in  great  measure  depends  the  universal  good  of  the  nation." 
— Sir  Wm.  Blackstone,  Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England: 
London,  1809    (first  edition,  1765). 

6  Ellison,  as  cited,  p.  8. 

'Cited  by  Baines,  p.  78 


COTTON  ENTERS  ENGLAND     47 

flaunting  in  a  calico  shirt  and  a  pair  of  silk  stockings 
from  Moorshedabad  I "  ^ 

In  1700  an  Act  was  passed  by  Parliament  which 
forbade  the  introduction  of  ' '  India  silks  and  printed 
calicoes  for  domestic  use,  either  as  apparel  or  furni- 
ture, under  a  penalty  of  £200. ' '  ^  This,  however, 
appeared  to  give  little  relief,  for  in  1708  we  hear  the 
genial  author  of  '^Robinson  Crusoe'*  lifting  up  a 
mournful  philippic  against  the  growing  rule  of  King 
Cotton. 

**The  general  fansie  of  the  people,"  says  Daniel 
Defoe,  "runs  upon  East  India  goods  to  that  degree, 
that  the  chints  and  printed  callicoes,  which  before 
were  only  made  use  of  for  carpets,  quilts,  etc.,  and  to 
clothe  children  and  ordinary  people,  become  now  the 
dress  of  our  ladies ;  and  such  is  the  power  of  a  mode 
as  we  saw  our  persons  of  quality  dressed  in  Indian 
carpets,  which  but  a  few  years  before  their  chamber- 
maids would  have  thought  too  ordinary  for  them: 
the  chints  was  advanced  from  lying  upon  their  floors 
to  their  backs,  from  the  foot-cloth  to  the  petticoat; 
and  even  the  queen  herself  at  this  time  was  pleased 
to  appear  in  China  and  Japan,  I  mean  China  silks 
and  calico.  Nor  was  this  all,  but  it  crept  into  our 
houses,  our  closets,  and  bedchambers;  curtains, 
cushions,  chairs,  and  at  last  beds  themselves,  were 
nothing  but  callicoes  or  Indian  stuffs ;  and  in  short, 
almost  everything  that  used  to  be  made  of  wool  or 
silk,  relating  either  to  the  dress  of  the  women  or  the 
furniture  of  our  houses,  was  supplied  by  the  Indian 
trade. — The  several  goods  bought  from  India  are 
made  five  parts  in  six  under  our  price,  and,  being 

sMacaulay's  History  of  England:     New  York,  1873;  vol.  vi,  pp. 
165-166. 
•  Cited  by  Ellison,  p.  11;  Act  11  and  12,  William  III,  cap.  10. 


48  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

imported  and  sold  at  an  extravagant  advantage,  are 
yet  capable  of  underselling  the  cheapest  thing  we  can 
set  about.  "10 

Meanwhile,  there  are  whispers  that  the  woolen 
weavers  at  Manchester  are  busily  engaged  in  making 
shrewd  imitations  of  the  much  denounced  Indian  im- 
ports !  This  marks  the  beginning  of  England's  stub- 
born surrender.  Parliament,  however,  made  a  final 
and  desperate  stand  for  the  wool-sack.  In  1720  ^^  it 
prohibited  the  use  or  wear  in  Great  Britain,  in  any 
garment  or  apparel  whatsoever,  of  any  printed, 
painted,  stained,  or  dyed  calico,  under  the  penalty 
of  forfeiting  to  the  informer  the  sum  of  £5 — thus 
virtually  establishing  the  universal  office  of  clothes- 
warden,  after  the  modern  fashion  of  some  of  the 
American  States  in  the  protection  of  game  by  award- 
ing a  fine  to  informers.  It  was  also  enacted  that 
persons  using  printed  or  dyed  calico  "in  or  about  any 
bed,  chair,  cushion,  window-curtain,  or  any  other 
sort  of  household  stuff  or  furniture, ' '  should  be  fined 
£20,  and  that  dealers  selling  the  stuff  should  be 
mulcted  an  equal  amount.^^ 

This  was  just  twenty  years  before  the  beginning 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  which  with  great  sud- 
denness transformed  rural  England  by  introducing 
the  modem  era  of  machinery. 

10  Weekly  Review:     London,  Jan.  31,  1708. 

11  Ellison,  p.  12. 

12  F.  Wilkinson,  The  Story  of  the  Cotton  Plant:     New  York,  1906; 
p.  119. 


BOOK  II 
THE  TRANSFORMATION  OF  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  12 

THE  INDUSTRIAL   EEVOLUTION 

Wbiting  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  in  England, 
Professor  Gibbins  says:  "The  French  Revolution 
took  place  about  the  same  time,  and  as  it  was  per- 
formed amid  streams  of  blood  and  flame,  it  attracted 
the  attention  of  historians,  who  have  apparently  yet 
to  learn  that  bloodshed  and  battles  are  merely  the 
incidents  of  history. — Nothing  has  done  more  to 
make  England  what  she  at  present  is  than  this  sud- 
den and  silent  Industrial  Revolution,  for  it  increased 
her  wealth  ten-fold,  and  gave  her  half  a  century's 
start  in  front  of  the  nations  of  Europe."  ^ 

Cotton  chiefly  produced  it — the  struggle  of  cotton 
with  wool.  How  complete  the  triumph  in  this  battle, 
appears  in  the  simple  fact  that  cotton  now  takes  the 
leading  rank  in  British  industries,  whereas  wool 
occupied  the  supreme  position  when  the  Industrial 
Revolution  began.  Cotton  dispossessed  wool;  and 
yet  every  circumstantial  advantage  was  arrayed  on 
the  side  of  the  wool-sack,  as  has  been  shown.  Town- 
send  Warner  sums  the  case  aptly  in  Traill's  ''Social 
England,"  pointing  out  that  the  term  ''revolution" 
is  amply  justified  by  the  three-fold  test  of  trade  ex- 
pansion, a  transformed  economic  system,  and  the 
transfer  of  industrial  sites. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  this  revolutionary  era  was 

iH.  de  B.  Gibbins,  The  Industrial  History  of  England:  London, 
1904;  pp.  156-157. 

61 


52  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

characterized  by  an  enormous  increase  in  trade.  In 
1740  there  had  been  no  true  cotton  manufacture  at 
all;  which  is  to  say,  that  all  of  the  so-called  ** cot- 
tons" were  made  with  the  aid  of  linen  warp.  Even 
the  import  of  cotton  for  fustians,  candle-wicks,  and 
other  purposes  amounted  to  only  1,645,031  lbs.; 
whereas  in  1815  cotton  imports  reached  a  volume  of 
nearly  one  hundred  millions. 

Cotton,  however,  was  by  no  means  the  only  in- 
dustry affected ;  other  trades  borrowed  its  stimulus. 
For  example,  in  1740  England  made  17,350  tons  of 
pig-iron ;  but  in  1806  there  were  258,206  tons,  and  in 
1825,  581,367  tons.  In  1740  England  exported 
hardly  any  iron,  but  imported  much;  in  1815  it  ex- 
ported 91,000  tons:  while  conversely,  between  1792 
and  1812  the  quantity  imported  dropped  from  51,000 
tons  to  24,000  tons.  The  total  merchandise  exports 
rose  from  a  value  of  £8,197,788  in  1740  to  £58,624,550 
in  1815,  while  the  revenue  increased  from  £3,997,000 
to  £71,900,005,  and  the  population  itself  rose  from 
6,064,000  to  more  than  ten  millions. 

A  change  in  mere  volume,  however,  hardly  justi- 
fies the  term  "revolution."  A  change  in  nature,  far 
more  important  than  a  mere  change  in  volume,  also 
occurred.  All  industry  was  domestic  in  1740 ;  spin- 
ning and  weaving  being  cottage  occupations  entirely. 
While  the  husbandman  managed  the  loom  at  odd 
hours,  wife  and  children  spent  all  of  their  spare  time 
in  spinning.  Factories  in  the  modern  sense  did  not 
exist.  Except  for  Kay's  fly-shuttle,  the  loom  stood 
unchanged  as  from  primitive  ages,  while  spinning 
was  equally  ancient  in  all  its  methods.  But  in  1815 
the  master  and  mill  had  arrived,  while  men  had  be- 
come "hands,"  working  on  a  time  schedule,  assisted 
by  women  and  children. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION        53 

But  industry  had  not  only  changed  in  nature  as 
well  as  in  volume,  it  had  also  changed  its  location. 
Weavers,  no  longer  scattered  through  the  rural  dis- 
tricts at  random,  had  been  attracted  to  the  vicinity 
of  the  spinning  mills,  so  as  to  work  up  the  yarn 
which  the  master  spinners  gave  out.  Then  water- 
power  came  into  use,  mills  clustering  on  the  river 
banks,  and  gradually  moving  up-stream.  One  inci- 
dental result  of  this  movement  was  the  abandonment 
of  the  woolen  manufacture  in  the  low  countries,  and, 
in  fact,  wherever  water-power  was  not  available. 
By  1802  steam  power  began  to  supersede  water, 
whereupon  industry  drew  in  from  the  streams  and 
built  up  large  manufacturing  towns,  wherever  coal 
was  cheap  and  labor  fairly  abundant. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  of  England,  as  sum- 
marized so  compactly  by  Warner,^  serves  to  typify 
and  typically  illustrate  those  stupendous  changes 
that  were  to  be  wrought  throughout  human  society 
by  the  invention  and  large  use  of  machinery ;  and  the 
cotton  plant  of  the  Orient  is  historically  responsible 
for  an  important  share  in  this  Revolution,  which 
brought  about  unnumbered  benefits,  with  numerous 
attendant  evils  in  their  train. 

Perhaps  the  most  startling  feature  of  the  English 
change  was  the  rapidity  with  which  it  was  accom- 
plished. In  little  more  than  twenty  years  almost  all 
the  great  cotton  inventions  were  achieved,  Watt's 
new  engine  had  applied  steam  power  to  novel  looms, 
and  the  modern  factory  system  had  usurped  the  seat 
of  a  scattered  and  unorganized  rural  industry. 

England,  with  its  accustomed  phlegmatism,  had 
been  almost  the  last  country  in  Europe  to  take  up 

2H.  D.  Traill,  Social  England:  London;  1905 j  vol.  v,  pp.  600- 
'604. 


54         COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

the  manufacture  of  cotton;  but  England,  slow  to 
arouse  herself,  makes  a  mighty  stir  when  once  awake. 
Convinced  finally  that  the  seductive  Indian  goods 
had  permanently  enchanted  the  fancy  of  her  people 
in  spite  of  political  eloquence  and  excise  laws  and 
penalties,  she  taught  her  weavers  surreptitiously  to 
imitate  the  forbidden  fripperies,  and  then  at  length 
the  spirit  of  indomitable  enterprise  awakened,  so 
that  England  resolved  to  take  this  fleecy  stuff  from 
the  Orient,  and,  by  the  sheer  application  of  brain 
power,  turn  disaster  into  opulence  through  a  manipu- 
lation more  dextrous  than  that  of  the  Hindus  them- 
selves. 


CHAPTER  13 

BRITISH;  GENIUS 

Just  on  the  unguessed  verge  of  the  Industrial 
Revolution,  Daniel  Defoe/  the  eloquent  champion  of 
wool,  went  on  an  inland  journey  which  he  fully  re- 
ported, giving  a  vivid  picture  of  domestic  England 
before  machinery  had  made  its  appearance.  ''The 
land  was  divided  into  small  Enclosures  from  two 
Acres  to  six  or  seven  each,  seldom  more,  every  three 
or  four  Pieces  of  Land  had  a  House  jjelonging  to 
them; — ^hardly  an  House  standing  out  of  Speaking- 
distance  from  another. — ^We  could  see  at  every 
House  a  Tenter,  and  on  almost  every  Tenter  a  piece 
of  Cloth  or  Kersie  or  Shaloon.  At  every  consider- 
able House  there  was  a  Manufactory.  Every 
clothier  keeps  one  horse  at  least  to  carry  his  Manu- 
factures to  the  Market;  and  every  one  generally 
keeps  a  Cow  or  two  or  more  for  his  Family.  By  this 
means  the  small  Pieces  of  enclosed  Land  about  each 
house  are  occupied,  for  they  scarce  sow  Com  enough 
to  feed  their  Poultry. — The  houses  are  full  of  lusty 
Fellows,  some  at  the  Dye-vat,  some  at  the  looms, 
others  dressing  the  Cloths ;  the  women  and  children 
carding  or  spinning;  being  all  employed,  from  the 
youngest  to  the  oldest. ' ' 

Next  to  agriculture,  the  handiwork  connected  with 
cloth  manufacture  had  come  to  be,  since  the  time  of 

iToTir  Through  the  Whole  Island  of  Great  Britain:  London, 
1727;  iii,  144-146. 

66 


56  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

Edward  III,  the  chief  occupation  of  the  English ;  but 
it  was  essentially  a  rural  and  domestic  handiwork, 
as  far  as  possible  removed  from  the  factory-town 
system  of  to-day.  Pieces  of  goods,  once  made,  were 
painfully  collected  in  the  huddled  hamlets;  slowly 
gathered  from  the  hamlets  into  towns ;  and  then  from 
the  inland  towns  to  seaports,  over  the  worst  of  roads, 
and  by  the  most  rudimentary  conveyances.  There 
was  certainly  acute  need  of  manufacturing  improve- 
ment, as  well  as  of  better  transportation. 

Professor  Cheyney's  terse  sketch  of  the  old  pro- 
cesses of  domestic  manufacture  may  be  still  further 
condensed  for  the  present  purpose.  The  raw  ma- 
terial, whether  coming  from  the  back  of  the  sheep,  the 
boll  of  the  cotton  plant,  or  the  crushed  stems  of  the 
flax,  is  in  any  case  a  mass  of  tangled  fiber ;  so  that  it 
is  first  necessary  to  straighten  the  skeins  of  this 
fiber,  by  ''combing"  in  the  case  of  wool,  and  other- 
wise by  ''carding";  simple  hand  implements  having 
been  used  from  time  immemorial,  and  a  thin  fluffy 
roll  of  fiber  resulting,  known  as  the  slubbin,  or  rove. 
Spinning,  the  next  task,  consisted  in  attenuating  the 
rove  into  yarn,  which  in  the  same  process  was  twisted 
to  secure  greater  strength ;  the  implement  being  first 
the  high  hand-wheel,  and  then  the  low  foot-wheel 
which  left  the  hands  free  for  more  rapid  manipu- 
lation of  material.  The  thread  thus  produced  was 
then  set  upon  the  loom,  which  required  strong  sub- 
stance for  the  lengthwise  threads  of  the  warp ;  while 
the  weft,  or  woof,  which  might  be  of  weaker  ma- 
terial, was  wrapped  on  a  shuttle  and  thrown  hori- 
zontally by  hand  between  the  two  diverging  bands  of 
the  warp.  The  woven  cloth,  being  then  subjected  to 
various  processes  such  as  finishing,  fulling,  shearing, 
and  dyeing  (unless  this  had  already  been  done  in 


BRITISH  GENIUS  57 

the  yarn),  the  finished  product  was  ready  for  the 
market.^ 

After  British  weavers  had  begun  to  imitate  the 
fabrics  of  India  they  encountered  their  chief  diffi- 
culty in  being  unable  to  spin  a  cotton  yarn  of  suffi- 
cient strength  to  serve  as  warp;  the  lengthwise 
threads  being  subjected  to  severe  longitudinal  strain 
as  well  as  to  the  friction  of  the  cross-flying  shuttle. 
Linen  warp,  used,  perforce,  as  a  substitute,  failed 
to  deceive  those  keen-eyed  ladies  and  dandies  that 
were  addicted  to  the  fashionable  craze  for  calicoes 
and  other  '*  fripperies "  of  Oriental  origin. 

This  difficulty  was  hardly  relieved  by  the  first  in- 
vention in  the  notable  series,  when  John  Kay,  in  1738, 
made  a  fly-shuttle  for  his  loom,  and  thus  enhanced 
its  efficiency;  on  the  contrary,  the  troubles  of  the 
spinners  were  only  intensified,  since  Kay's  invention 
made  the  looms  so  voracious  for  yarn  that  it  was 
difficult  to  keep  them  supplied  even  with  weft. 
Weavers  generally  had  their  weft  spun  for  them  by 
the  women  of  their  families,  as  already  remarked; 
whence  the  modern  connotation  of  "spinster,"  a 
proficient  unmarried  female.  But  the  time  came,  as 
Guest  says,  when  those  weavers  whose  families  could 
not  furnish  the  necessary  supply  of  weft,  had  their 
spinning  done  by  their  neighbors,  and  were  obliged 
to  pay  more  for  the  spinning  than  the  price  allowed 
by  their  masters;  and  even  with  this  disadvantage, 
very  few  could  procure  weft  enough  to  keep  them- 
selves constantly  employed.  It  was  no  uncommon 
thing  for  a  weaver  to  walk  three  or  four  miles  in  a 
morning,  and  call  on  five  or  six  spinners,  before  he 
could  collect  weft  to  serve  him  for  the  remainder  of 

2E.  p.  Cheyney,  An  Introduction  to  the  Industrial  and  Social 
History  of  England:     New  York,  1905;  pp.  205-206. 


58  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

the  day ;  and  when  he  wished  to  weave  a  piece  in  a 
shorter  time  than  usual,  a  new  ribbon  or  gown  was 
necessary  to  quicken  the  exertions  of  the  spinner, 
or  spinster. 

This  augmented  demand  for  ordinary  weft,  due 
largely  to  Kay's  contribution  to  the  efificiency  of  the 
loom,  was  at  length  met  by  the  ingenious  spinning- 
jenny  of  Hargreaves,  invented  about  1764;  while  the 
need  of  stronger  thread  for  warp  was  supplied  by 
the  patent  taken  out  on  the  spinning-frame  or 
"water-frame ' '  by  Arkwright  in  1769,  a  year  still  fur- 
ther signalized  by  Watt's  patent  of  the  steam  engine, 
which  was  to  furnish  the  chief  motive  power  of  mod- 
ern machinery ;  while  the  gifted  Crompton  presently 
joined  the  *' jenny"  of  Hargreaves  to  Arkwright 's 
invention,  thus  producing  the  eflBcient  composite 
**mule";  and  so  the  spinners'  troubles  were  finally 
ended. 

The  loom,  having  now  ample  provender,  was  trans- 
formed by  Cartwright  in  1787  into  a  machine  of  great 
power,  and  hitched  to  the  engine  of  Watt ;  while  full 
provision  was  beneficently  made  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  this  enormously  increased  manufacture  by 
the  bold  canals  of  Brindley,  connecting  Manchester 
with  Liverpool,  and  by  improved  roads;  so  that  it 
only  remained  for  Humphry  Davy,  through  his  in- 
vention of  the  miner's  safety  lamp  (in  1815)  to  light 
the  way  to  untold  storehouses  of  coal  for  the  driving 
of  James  Watt's  steam-engines. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  closely  knit  series  of  in- 
ventions by  which  England,  her  genius  aroused, 
seized  the  entangling  threads  of  the  cotton  boll  and 
out  of  them  wove  a  new  destiny.  It  remains  now  to 
examine  that  genius  as  exemplified  in  the  lives  of  the 
inventors. 


CHAPTER  14 

KAY  AND  HAEGBEAVES^ 

"The  strength  in  the  heart  of  her  poor  is  the  hope 
of  Sweden"  conveys  a  sentiment  that  England  might 
borrow  with  which  to  emblazon  the  story  of  that  won- 
derful group  of  men  whose  patience  and  skill,  in  a 
brief  span  of  years,  filled  her  waste  places  with 
plenty  and  her  silent  spaces  with  the  incessant  hum 
of  industry  through  making  of  their  meager  island 
home  the  rich  and  busy  "workshop  of  the  world." 
Arkwright  was  a  barber,  Brindley  could  hardly  write 
his  name,  Watt  and  Robert  Kay  began  life  as  me- 
chanical apprentices  and  Davy  as  an  apothecary's 
clerk,  while  Hargreaves,  Crompton,  and  John  Kay 
were  humble  weavers.  Only  Cartwright,  of  all  the 
illustrious  group,  commenced  with  the  background  of 
influence  behind  him,  being  a  clergyman  when  he 
invented  his  loom;  but  even  he,  like  most  of  the 
others,  got  much  pain  and  trouble  as  reward.  It  is 
little  wonder  that  Baines,  after  a  study  of  this  period, 
should  reach  the  hard  conclusion  that  inventors, 
when  failing  in  their  projects,  get  no  pity;  and  when 
they  succeed,  persecution,  envy,  and  jealousy  are 
their  reward. 

John  Kay  (1704-1764?)  became  doorkeeper  to  "the 
golden  age  of  cotton,"  as  it  is  called,  by  increasing 

1  Chief  authority :  B.  Woodcroft,  Brief  Biographies  of  the  In- 
ventors of  Machines  for  the  Manufacture  of  Textile  Fabrics:  Lon- 
don, 1863. 

69 


60  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

the  eflficiency  of  the  loom,  and  thereby  rendering  new 
spinning  devices  imperative  if  England  was  to  cap- 
ture the  cotton  industry  from  India.  A  weaver  at 
Bury,  he  was  used  to  the  common  type  of  "Dutch 
engine  loom"  brought  over  by  the  first  Flemish  set- 
tlers. This  was  a  cumbrous  machine,  requiring,  in 
addition  to  the  labor  of  the  weaver  himself,  the  serv- 
ices of  men  standing  on  either  side  of  the  loom  to 
fling  the  heavy  shuttle  to  and  fro  whenever  wide 
goods  were  in  process,  so  that  Dyer  in  his  quaint 
poem  on  "the  Fleece"  could  appropriately  compare 
the  casting  of  the  "strong-flung  shuttle"  with  the 
wielding  of  the  spear.^  For  more  than  five  thousand 
years,  North  ^  says,  by  millions  of  skilled  workmen, 
one  generation  following  in  the  exact  footsteps  of  an- 
other, had  the  clothing  of  the  people  been  woven, 
with  but  little  attempt  to  expedite  or  simplify  the 
process.  John  Kay,  by  the  application  of  his  prolific 
genius,  brought  the  ancient  hand-loom  essentially 
to  the  form  in  which  we  now  use  it,  by  extending  the 
lathe,  or  container  in  which  the  shuttle  moved,  and 
attaching  spring  fixtures  and  cords  to  both  ends,  so 
that  the  weaver,  while  treadling,  could  with  one  hand 
drive  home  the  weft,  while  with  the  other  he  now 
merely  released  the  racing  shuttle,  spring  hammers 
being  substituted  for  muscle  power;  thus  not  only 
saving  labor,  but  operating  the  machine  with  such 
celerity  as  to  double  its  output.  Woodcroft  thinks 
that  no  division  of  labor  between  the  two  hands  of 
one  operative  ever  produced  results  equal  to  those 
which  this  invention  secured ;  leading  a  fervid  versi- 
fier to  exclaim : 

2  See  Appendix  C. 

3  S.  N.  D.  North,  The  Development  of  American  Industries  since 
Columbus:     New  York,  1891;  Popular  Science  Monthly,  xxxix. 


KAY  AND  HAEGEEAVES  61 

"Success  to  the  shuttle,  respect  be  the  doom 
Of  John  Kay,  as  our  trade 's  benefactor ! 

What  impulse  he  gave  to  the  use  of  the  loom, 
What  a  boon  to  the  world's  manufacture !"  * 

Kay's  device,  called  the  *' fly* '-shuttle  on  account 
of  its  swift  movement,^  was  patented  in  1733,  and  by 
the  year  1760  had  been  adopted  by  the  manufacturers 
of  Lancashire.  It  was  in  the  latter  year  that  his 
son  Eobert  further  increased  the  efficiency  of  the 
Dutch  engine  loom  by  inventing  the  ''drop  box," 
which  enabled  the  weaver  to  ply  at  his  pleasure  any 
of  three  separate  shuttles,  each  containing  a  differ- 
ent colored  weft,  without  disturbing  the  box  that  con- 
tained them. 

But  before  Kay's  fly-shuttle  could  command  gen- 
eral use  it  had  to  overcome  not  only  the  bitter  preju- 
dice of  artisans  who  condemned  it  as  a  supplanter  of 
labor,  but  also  the  opposition  of  the  "upper  classes," 
who  were  straightway  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  an 
increased  tax  rate  for  the  support  of  supposititious 
workmen  that  would  be  thrown  into  the  alms-houses 
by  reason  of  lack  of  employment !  Neither  the  igno- 
rant laborer  nor  the  elegant  gentleman  of  leisure  had 
sufficient  sagacity  to  perceive  that  machinery,  by  at 
once  improving  and  cheapening  manufacture,  causes 
an  extended  demand  for  its  products  and  thereby 
provides  employment  for  more  hands  than  have  been 
for  the  time  superseded.  The  rioting  of  weavers  at 
Leeds  compelled  John  Kay  to  shut  up  his  mill  there ; 
and  when  it  was  learned  that  he  planned  further 

***D.  F.  P."  in  An  Exposition  of  Facts  Relating  to  the  Rise  and 
Progress  of  the  Woollen,  Linen,  and  Cotton  Manufactures  of  Great 
Britain,  by  Thos.  Sutcliffe:     Manchester,  1843. 

5  A  "pick"  is  the  passage  of  the  shuttle  across  the  loom.  Before 
the  invention  of  Kay's  fly-shuttle,  looms  could  not  average  20  picks 
a  minute;  they  now  range  from  135  to  230. 


62    COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

maclimeiy  for  the  improvement  of  spinning,  a  mob 
broke  into  his  house,  and,  after  destroying  everything 
it  contained,  would  have  killed  the  inventor  had  he 
not  been  smuggled  away  in  a  wool-sheet.  His  trou- 
bles did  not  end  here,  however,  for  manufacturers 
violated  his  patents,  and  at  length  the  man  who  had 
added  untold  wealth  to  his  country  was  permitted  to 
be  driven  into  France  as  an  exile  and  to  die  there, 
about  the  year  1764,  in  direst  poverty. 

Within  the  last  generation  Bury  dedicated  a  monu- 
ment to  the  memory  of  Kay,  bearing  the  following 
appreciative  inscription :  ® 

Presented  to  His  Native  Town 
By  Henry  Whitehead,  Esq., 
To  Perpetuate  the  Name  and  Fame  op  John  Kay, 
OP  Bury 
Whose  Invention  op  the  Fly  Shuttle  in  the  Year  1733 
Quadrupled  Human  Power  and  Placed  This  Coun- 
try in  the  Front  Rank 
OP  THE  Markets  op  the  World 
FOR  Textile  Manufactures. 

The  loom  having  now  been  greatly  improved, 
there  ensued,  as  already  noted,  an  emphasized  de- 
mand for  better  and  more  copious  spinning.  The 
next  three  inventors  accordingly  busied  themselves 
with  satisfying  this  increased  hunger  of  the  looms 
by  devising  machinery  for  the  production  of  yam: 
Hargreaves  providing  more  weft,  Arkwright  making 
possible  the  first  genuine  cotton  warp,  and  Crompton 
uniting  the  essential  features  of  their  two  machines, 
jenny  and  frame,  in  his  comically  nicknamed  **mule" 
— one  of  the  choicest  titbits  of  etymological  fun  in 
all  the  dictionary  larder. 

6  London  Times,  June  27,  1913;  p.  46. 


KAY  AND  HAEGEEAVES  63 

James   Hargreaves    ( 1778),    carpenter   and 

weaver,  literally  stumbled  upon  his  invention  about 
the  year  1764,  when,  entering  his  cottage  near  Black- 
burn, his  back  bent  with  heavy  bundles  of  yam  that 
he  had  been  laboriously  collecting  for  his  loom, 
either  he  or  his  wife  accidentally  overthrew  the  hand- 
wheel  at  which  she  was  spinning ;  whereupon  James 
perceived  that  the  spindles,  although  thrown  into  an 
unwonted  upright  position,  still  continued  revolving ; 
and  on  the  instant  there  flashed  into  his  mind  the 
picture  of  a  spinning  machine  with  upright  spindles, 
which  he  translated  straightway  into  an  instrument 
so  simple  that  children  could  and  did  operate  it,  thus 
dating  the  introduction  of  child  labor  into  the  cotton 
industry. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  new  spinning-jenny, 
besides  its  rows  of  upright  spindles,  was  a  moving 
carriage ;  the  operator 's  right  hand  turning  a  wheel 
which  caused  the  spindles  to  revolve  rapidly,  while 
with  his  left  he  pulled  a  miniature  carriage  towards 
him,  and  thus  drew  out  to  tenuity  the  rovings  at- 
tached to  it,  the  spindles  twisting  this  material  into 
yarn,  and  then  winding  it.  The  first  jenny,  working 
eight  rovings  in  a  row,  multiplied  the  power  of  the 
hand-wheel  eight  times ;  when  the  machine  was  pat- 
ented, in  1770,  the  number  of  spindles  had  been 
doubled;  soon  there  came  to  be  twenty  or  thirty, 
and  afterwards  a  hundred — ^thus,  according  to  the 
argument  of  ignorance,  throwing  ninety-nine  spin- 
sters out  of  work. 

Hargreaves  kept  his  invention  secret  as  long  as 
possible,  his  ambition  extending  no  further  than  the 
use  of  it  in  his  own  family,  so  as  to  increase  the  sup- 
ply of  weft  for  his  own  loom;  but  when  rumor  had 
at  length  wrought  its  mischief  a  mob  broke  into  his 


64  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

house,  as  into  John  Kay's  before  him,  and,  after  de- 
stroying the  spinning- jenny,  compelled  him  to  flee 
for  his  life.  Establishing  himself  finally  at  Not- 
tingham, he  formed  a  partnership  with  Thomas 
James  in  conducting  what  was  probably  the  first 
spinning  mill  in  all  England.  His  patents  were 
stolen,  however,  and  he  died  a  poor  man  (in  1778), 
directing  in  his  will  that  a  guinea  be  given  to  the 
vicar  for  preaching  his  funeral  sermon,  while  Mr. 
James  gave  the  widow  £400  for  her  husband's  share 
in  the  factory. 

Before  his  death  his  machine  had  worked  its  way 
into  both  the  cotton  and  linen  industries  to  such  an 
extent  that  twenty  thousand  hand-jennies  of  eight 
spindles  each  were  operating  in  England ;  "^  but  in  the 
year  after  his  death  a  mob  of  weavers  scoured  the 
country  for  miles  around  Blackburn,  demolishing  all 
the  jennies  they  could  find  with  more  than  twenty 
spindles,  the  smaller  ones  being  by  this  time  con- 
ceded to  be  useful;  and  also  destroying  every  ma- 
chine, of  whatever  kind,  driven  by  water  or  horses. 

A  pretty  legend  has  long  attributed  the  word 
** jenny,"  by  which  the  spinning  machine  is  uni- 
versally known,  to  a  chivalrous  desire  on  the  part  of 
James  Hargreaves  to  perpetuate  his  wife's  name; 
it  is  said  to  have  been  named  after  her.  Unfor- 
tunately, however,  a  grandson  of  the  inventor  is 
known  to  have  denied  this ;  and  the  origin  of  the  tale 
may  be  traced  to  Miss  Maria  Edgeworth's  didactic 

7  "From  the  year  1770  to  1778  a  complete  change  had  gradually 
been  effected  in  the  spinning  of  yarns;  that  of  wool  had  disappeared 
altogether,  and  that  of  linen  was  nearly  gone;  cotton,  cotton,  cotton, 
had  become  the  universal  material  for  employment;  the  hand-wheels 
were  all  thrown  into  lumber-rooms;  the  yarn  was  all  spun  on  com- 
mon jennies." — Wm,  Radcliffe's  Narrative,  cited  by  P.  Gaskell  in 
Artisans  and  Machinery:     London,  1836;  p.  374, 


KAY  AND  HAEGREAVES  65 

story  for  the  edification  of  children,  entitled  '  *  Harry 
and  Lucy,"  published  in  1825;  wherein  Lucy,  having 
been  told  by  her  father  the  story  of  the  Hargreaves 
invention,  exclaims:  '*A  Spinning  Jenny!  Very 
right!    I  suppose  his  wife's  name  was  Jenny." 

The  word  is  probably  either  a  feminine  variant  for 
**jack,"  frequently  applied  to  pieces  of  machinery, 
such  as  jack-screw,  or  else  a  variant  of  *'gin," — 
formerly  spelt  "ginne," — a  colloquial  abbreviation 
of  engine,  as  **bus"  is  for  omnibus. 


CHAPTEE  15 

ARKWEIGHT   THE  BARBEE  ^ 

EicHAED  Akkwright  (1732-1792)  is  the  only  one  of 
the  great  cotton  inventors  endowed  with  sufiScient 
business  sagacity  to  transmute  his  genius  into  tan- 
gible wealth.  Beginning  life  as  a  barber,  he  became 
high  sheriff  of  Derbyshire,  and  died  as  an  opulent 
knight — having  been  rewarded  by  George  III  for  his 
eloquence  when  as  high  sheriff  he  presented  the  King 
with  an  address  of  congratulation  on  escaping  death 
at  the  hands  of  one  Margaret  Nicholson.  The 
youngest  of  thirteen  children  in  a  humble  family  of 
Lancashire,  he  was  early  apprenticed  as  a  barber, 
and  followed  this  calling  until  thirty  years  old.  But 
he  was  by  no  means  an  ordinary  barber,  for  he  made 
money  by  doing  an  itinerant  business  with  wig- 
makers,  and,  further,  by  monopolizing  a  secret  manu- 
facture of  hair-dye.  He  also  tampered  with  per- 
petual motion,  and,  having  married  a  shrew,  sep- 
arated from  her  in  order  to  be  rid  of  her  noisy  allit- 
erative complaints  that  *'he  would  starve  his  family 
by  scheming  when  he  should  be  shaving" — as  also 
out  of  a  natural  resentment  toward  her  for  having 
smashed  some  of  his  precious  models. 

This  ingenious  Lancashire  barber  could  not  escape 
the  cogs  of  the  great  industrial  revolution  in  the 
midst  of  which  he  was  moving,  and  about  the  year 
1767  gave  himself  up  completely  to  the  development 

1  Chief  authority:     E.  Howe,  Memoirs:     New  York,  18&7. 

66 


ARKWEIGHT  THE  BARBER  67 

of  spinning  machines.  Securing  the  aid  of  the  clock- 
maker  Robert  Kay,  inventor  of  the  drop  box,  he  set 
to  work  in  a  house  belonging  to  the  grammar  school 
at  Preston,  and  there  produced  the  first  effective 
''water  frame"  (so  called  because  driven  by  water), 
which  was  based,  whether  consciously  or  innocently, 
on  the  uncompleted  work  of  Wyatt  and  Paul,  done 
thirty  years  earlier. 

Lewis  Paul  had  in  1738  invented,  in  cooperation 
with  John  Wyatt,  a  machine  that  was  providing  the 
now  numerous  spinning-jennies  with  a  plentiful  sup- 
ply of  good  roving.  The  characteristic  feature  of 
Paul's  carding  machine  consisted  of  rollers  in  con- 
tact, like  those  of  the  modem  clothes-wringer,  and 
this  is  also  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  machine 
patented  by  Arkwright  in  1769.  These  rollers  were 
laid  out  by  Arkwright  in  four  pairs,  all  the  lower 
rollers  being  fluted,  and  the  upper  ones  covered  with 
leather.  Since  each  successive  pair  of  rollers  re- 
volved with  increased  rapidity,  the  roving  was  by  the 
pressure  of  the  first  pair  reduced  to  a  thick  cord,  and 
then  by  the  next  pair,  revolving  much  more  rapidly, 
drawn  out  to  be  thinner  and  stronger,  until,  when 
the  end  of  the  process  had  been  reached,  a  cotton 
yarn  could  be  obtained  sufficiently  durable  to  be  used 
as  a  warp.  To  this  day,  the  Arkwright  principle, 
even  in  our  most  elaborate  spinning  mills,  is  used 
for  the  production  of  warp,  while  the  moving  car- 
riage of  Hargreaves  is  utilized  in  the  manufacture 
of  weft. 

Like  Hargreaves,  Arkwright  moved  to  Notting- 
ham, where  he  became  the  dominant  partner  in  a 
knitting  firm,  which  in  the  year  1773  manufactured 
from  Arkwright  warp  the  first  piece  of  genuine 
British  made   calico — by  horse-power.    Arkwright 


68  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

afterwards  set  up  an  extensive  water-power  factory 
at  Cromford,  in  Derbyshire,  where  his  business 
talents  served  him  so  well  that,  notwithstanding  his 
patents  were  thrown  open  by  the  courts,  he  laid  up 
a  great  fortune,  living  in  '^patriarchal  prosperity." 
Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  whose  poetic  faculty  exercised 
itself  in  extolling  the  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary 
without  his  ever  guessing  of  its  identity  with  the 
cotton  boll,  thus  described,  in  the  same  poem,^  the 
mill  on  the  river  Derwent: 

Where  Derwent  rolls  his  dusky  floods 
Through  vaulted  mountains,  and  a  night  of  woods, 
The  nymph,  Gossypia,^  treads  the  velvet  sod, 
And  warms  with  rosy  smiles  the  watery  God ; 
His  ponderous  oars  to  slender  spindles  turns, 
And  pours  o  'er  massy  wheels  his  foamy  urns ; 
With  playful  charms  her  hoary  lover  wins, 
And  wields  his  trident, — while  the  Monarch  spins. — 
First  with  nice  eye  emerging  Naiads  cull 
From  leathery  pods  the  vegetable  wool; 
With  wiry  teeth  revolving  cards  release 
The  tangled  knots,  and  smooth  the  ravel'd  fleece; 
Next  moves  the  iron-hand  with  fingers  fine. 
Combs  the  wide  card,  and  forms  the  eternal  line; 
Slowj  with  soft  lips,  the  whirling  Can  acquires 
The  tender  skeins,  and  wraps  in  rising  spires ; 
With  quicken 'd  pace,  successive  rollers  move. 
And  these  retain,  and  those  extend  the  rove; 
Then  fly  the  spoles,  the  rapid  axles  glow ; — 
And  slowly  circumvolves  the  laboring  wheel  below. 

Arkwright,  this  barber  who  became  knight,  was  a 
good  deal  of  a  man.  When  considerably  more  than 
fifty  years  old  he  undertook  the  study  of  English 
grammar,  not  only  devoting  an  hour  a  day  to  it,  with 

2  The  Botanic  Garden,  as  cited. 

&The  botanical  name  of  the  cotton  plant  is  Ooasypium. 


AEKWEIGHT  THE  BARBER  69 

another  hour  to  the  improvement  of  his  writing  and 
spelling,  but  taking  this  time  from  his  sleeping 
allowance,  which  was  scant,  as  he  labored  assiduously 
from  five  until  nine  o'clock  daily.  Yet  at  this  time 
he  was  exceedingly  rich  for  those  days,  having 
amassed  a  fortune  of  nearly  half  a  million  pounds 
sterling.  A  vivid  glimpse  of  the  ''patriarchal  pros- 
perity" in  which  he  had  lived  is  gained  from  the  fol- 
lowing lively  description  of  his  funeral,  from  the 
pen  of  a  contemporary  traveler  who  happened  to  be 
passing  through  the  town: 

"As  the  ground  I  was  on  was  much  higher  than 
the  Tor,  or  any  of  the  hills  at  Matlock,  I  was  at 
once  surprised  and  delighted  with  the  grand  and 
awful  scene  that  expanded  below  me;  all  the  rich 
profusion  of  wild  nature  thrown  together  in  an 
assemblage  of  objects  the  most  sublime.  To 
heighten  the  view,  the  Tor,  and  rocks  near  it,  were 
covered  with  people. — The  roads  were  nearly  im- 
passable, from  the  crowds  of  people  who  had  assem- 
bled to  witness  the  procession.  The  ceremony  was 
conducted  with  much  pomp,  and,  as  nearly  as  I  can 
remember,  was  thus:  a  coach  and  four  with  the 
clergy;  another  with  the  pall-bearers;  the  hearse, 
covered  with  escutcheons,  and  surrounded  by  mutes, 
followed;  then  the  horse  of  the  deceased,  led  by  a 
servant;  the  relations,  and  about  fifteen  or  twenty 
carriages,  closed  the  procession,  which  was  nearly 
half  a  mile  in  length.  The  evening  was  gloomy,  and 
the  solemn  stillness  that  reigned  was  only  inter- 
rupted by  the  rumbling  of  the  carriages,  and  the 
gentle  murmurs  of  the  river;  and,  as  they  passed, 
the  echo  of  the  Tor  gently  returned  the  sound. ' ' 

Thus  ended  the  dramatic  career  of  the  English- 
man who  may  properly  be  called  the  father  of  the 


70    COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

cotton  manufacture.  During  his  lifetime  the  im- 
ports of  lint  grew  from  a  million  and  a  half  pounds 
to  34,907,497  lbs.  (1792),  and  its  manufactured  ex- 
ports from  a  value  of  less  than  £20,000  to  almost 
£2,000,000,  although  the  ''golden  age  of  cotton"  was 
but  just  beginning.*  This  ''golden"  period,  which 
covered  the  years  from  1788  to  1803,  saw  the  cotton 
trade  treble  itself,  leading  Erasmus  Darwin  to  say : 
"It  is  probable  that  the  clothing  of  this  small  seed 
will  become  the  principal  clothing  of  mankind. ' '  ^ 

*  See  Appendix   F   1.    Radcliffe  designated  the  "golden  age"  of 
cotton  in  his  Narrative,  as  cited. 
sThe  Botanic  Garden,  as  cited. 


CHAPTER  16 

CKOMPTON  ^   AND   CARTWEIGHT  ^ 

Samuel  Ceompton  (1753-1827)  had  learned  at  an 
early  age  to  spin  on  one  of  the  Hargreaves  machines, 
in  the  beautiful  old  house  known  as  the  Hall  ith 
Wood,  which  is  still  standing  near  Bolton,  a  town 
famous  from  his  time  until  the  present  for  the  manu- 
facture of  fine  muslins  and  quiltings.  Losing  his 
father  in  infancy,  he  came  under  the  care  of  a  wise 
and  industrious  mother,  who  gave  her  son  an  excel- 
lent education.  He  was  never  able,  however,  to  emu- 
late the  business  ability  of  Arkwright.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-one  he  began  his  experiments,  and  suc- 
ceeded after  five  years  of  the  most  diligent  labor; 
the  result  being  a  combination  of  the  Arkwright  roll- 
ers with  the  moving  carriage  of  Hargreaves,  greatly, 
improved,  in  a  machine  which  eventually — during  his 
own  lifetime — carried  upwards  of  350  spindles. 
* '  He  applied  the  principle  of  roller  drawing  in  order 
to  first  attenuate  the  cotton,  and  he  utilized  the 
traveling  carriage  as  a  reserve  power  with  which  to 
improve  the  quality  of  the  thread  and  draw  it  out 
finer."    As  Baines  said  in  his. paraphrase : 

The  force  of  genius  could  no  farther  go — 
To  make  a  third  he  johaed  the  other  two. 

This  **mule"  was  far  more  than  a  clever  adapta- 
tion ;  it  manifested  original  ability,  in  accomplishing 

1  Chief  authority  for  Crompton :     F.  Wilkinson,  as  cited. 

2  Chief  authority  for  Cartwright:     E.  Baines,  Jr.,  as  cited;   B. 
Woodcroft,  as  cited. 

71 


72         COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

for  the  first  time  by  automatic  mechanism  the  move- 
ment of  the  spinner's  left  arm  and  forefinger  and 
thumb,  which  held  and  elongated  the  sliver,  while  the 
spinner  was  twisting  it  into  yarn.  North  says  that 
it  produced  a  yarn  of  much  greater  fineness  and  even- 
ness than  it  had  been  possible  to  make  by  any  process 
previously  in  use.  This  invention  was  the  proto- 
type of  the  mule  of  which  thousands  are  at  work 
throughout  the  world  to-day.^ 

Crompton  was  of  a  gentle  and  retiring  disposi- 
tion. Fond  of  music,  he  built  an  organ  for  his  en- 
joyment, and  also  played  the  violin  in  the  orchestra 
at  the  Bolton  theater  at  a  wage  of  one  shilling  six- 
pence the  night,  and  served  as  honorary  choir- 
master of  the  Swedenborgian  chapel.  Shunning 
publicity,  and  moreover  aware  that  rioters  were 
smashing  cotton  machinery  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Blackburn,  he  took  elaborate  pains  to  conceal  his 
invention  above  the  ceiling  of  his  work-room  at  the 
Hall  ith  Wood.  But  his  yam,  when  sold,  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  Bolton  masters  by  its  unique  ex- 
cellence, and  from  that  time  life  became  a  burden  to 
him.  **  Hundreds  of  manufacturers  visited  Samuel 
to  purchase,  but  many  more  came  out  of  curiosity,'* 
writes  Director  Wilkinson  of  the  Bolton  Engineering 
School.  One  individual  is  said  to  have  hidden  him- 
self five  days  in  the  cock-loft  and,  having  bored  a 
hole  through  the  ceiling,  feasted  one  eye  at  least  by 
a  sight  of  the  marvelous  mechanism  which  Cromptoii 
had  invented.  Being  plagued  for  his  secret,  he  at 
length  gave  it  up  in  return  for  a  promised  subscrip- 
tion, which,  when  collected,  amounted  to  the  mu- 
nificent sum  of  £67  6s.  6d.,  while  the  recipient  lived 
to  see  great  fortunes  realized  from  the  muslin  indus- 

«  S.  N.  D.  North,  as  cited. 


CEOMPTON  AND  CARTWEIGHT         73 

try  as  cultivated  by  his  wonderful  mule.  So  early 
as  the  year  1811  more  than  four  and  a  half  million 
spindles  operated  by  mules  were  in  use  in  various 
British  factories.  The  Government  voted  Cromp- 
ton  a  paltry  grant  of  £5000,  but  he  made  little  use  of 
it,  becoming  dependent  upon  a  friend,  and  dying  at 
the  age  of  seventy-four  in  poverty. 

The  effect  of  these  several  inventions  of  Har- 
greaves,  Arkwright,  and  Crompton  was  to  set  the 
spinning  business  far  in  advance  of  the  weaver,  who 
now  had  his  hands  full.  The  man  who  helped  the 
weavers  catch  up  with  the  spinners,  by  completing 
the  cycle  of  cotton  machinery,  was  a  poet  and  a 
genial  Kentish  parson. 

Edmund  Cartwright  (1743-1823)  himself  de- 
scribes his  invention  in  an  interesting  letter  which 
tells  of  a  visit  to  Arkwright 's  spinning  factory  at 
Cromford.  It  will  be  noted  that  he  had  never  seen 
a  weaver  at  work  when  he  achieved  his  revolutionary 
invention. 

*' Happening,"  he  says,  "to  be  at  Matlock  in  the 
summer  of  1784, 1  fell  in  company  with  some  gentle- 
men of  Manchester,  when  the  conversation  turned 
on  Arkwright 's  spinning  machinery.  One  of  the 
company  observed  that  as  soon  as  Arkwright 's  pat- 
ent expired,  so  many  mills  would  be  erected,  and  so 
much  cotton  spun,  that  hands  would  never  be  found 
to  weave  it.  To  this  observation  I  replied,  that  Ark- 
wright must  then  set  his  wits  to  work  to  invent  a 
weaving-mill.  This  brought  on  a  conversation  upon 
the  subject,  in  which  the  Manchester  gentlemen 
unanimously  agreed  that  the  thing  was  impracti- 
cable ;  and  in  defense  of  their  opinion  they  adduced 
arguments  which  I  was  certainly  incompetent  to  an- 


74         COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

swer,  or  even  to  comprehend,  being  totally  ignorant 
of  the  subject,  having  never  at  the  time  seen  a  per- 
son weave.  I  controverted,  however,  the  impracti- 
cabiUty  of  the  thing  by  remarking  that  there  had 
lately  been  exhibited  in  London  an  automaton  figure 
which  played  at  chess.  'Now  you  will  not  assert, 
gentlemen,'  said  I,  'that  it  is  more  difficult  to  con- 
struct a  machine  that  shall  weave,  than  one  that  shall 
make  all  the  variety  of  moves  that  are  required  in 
that  complicated  game.'  Some  time  afterwards  a 
particular  circumstance  recalling  this  conversation 
to  my  mind,  it  struck  me  that,  as  in  plain  weaving, 
according  to  the  conception  I  then  had  of  the  busi- 
ness, there  could  be  only  three  movements,  which 
were  to  follow  each  other  in  succession,  there  could 
be  little  difficulty  in  producing  and  repeating  them. 
Full  of  these  ideas,  I  immediately  employed  a  car- 
penter and  smith  to  carry  them  into  effect.  As  soon 
as  the  machine  was  finished,  I  got  a  weaver  to  put  in 
the  warp,  which  was  of  such  materials  as  sail-cloth  is 
usually  made  of.  To  my  great  delight,  a  piece  of 
cloth,  such  as  it  was,  was  the  produce.  As  I  had 
never  before  turned  my  thoughts  to  mechanism, 
either  in  theory  or  practise,  nor  had  seen  a  loom  at 
work,  nor  knew  anything  of  its  construction,  you 
will  readily  suppose  that  my  first  loom  must  have 
been  a  most  rude  piece  of  machinery.  The  warp 
was  laid  perpendicularly,  the  reed  fell  with  a  force 
of  at  least  half  a  hundred  weight,  and  the  springs 
which  threw  the  shuttle  were  strong  enough  to  have 
thrown  a  Congreve  rocket.  In  short,  it  required  the 
strength  of  two  powerful  men  to  work  the  machine, 
at  a  slow  rate,  and  only  for  a  short  time.  Conceiv- 
ing in  my  simplicity  that  I  had  accomplished  all  that 
was  required,  I  then  secured  what  I  thought  a  most 


CEOMPTON  AND  CAETWRIGHT    75 

valuable  property  by  a  patent,  4th  of  April,  1785. 
This  being  done,  I  then  condescended  to  see  how 
other  people  wove ;  and  you  will  guess  my  astonish- 
ment when  I  compared  their  easy  modes  of  operation 
with  mine.  Availing  myself,  however,  of  what  I 
then  saw,  I  made  a  loom  in  its  general  principles 
nearly  as  they  are  now  made.  But  it  was  not  till 
the  year  1787,  that  I  completed  my  invention,  when 
I  took  out  my  last  weaving  patent,  August  the  1st 
of  that  year." 

Cartwright's  machinery  was  at  first  worked  by  a 
bull,  but  he  introduced  the  newly  discovered  steam 
power  into  his  factory  at  Doncaster  in  1789.  In 
1791  a  Manchester  firm  contracted  for  four  hundred 
looms,  but  the  factory  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  prob- 
ably by  laborers  who  thought  that  the  ''iron  men," 
as  the  machines  were  called,  would  take  the  bread 
out  of  their  mouths.  Sarcastic  popular  verses  by 
John  Grimshaw  *  of  Groton  began  as  follows ; 

Come  all  you  cotton  weavers,  your  looms  you  may  pull 

down; 
You  must  get  employed  in  factories,  in  country  or  in  town, 
For  our  cotton  masters  have  found  out  a  wonderful  new 

scheme, 
These  calico  goods,  now  wove  by  hand,  they're  going  to 

weave  by  steam. 

Not  until  1801, — the  very  year  in  which  his  patent 
expired, — did  Cartwright's  invention  come  into  gen- 
eral favor.  In  1813  there  were  2400  in  use ;  in  1820 
there  were  14,150;  and  in  1833,  over  100,000.  The 
elaborate  machines  of  to-day  have  evolved  gradually, 
one   improvement   following   another,   out   of   the 

4  Lancashire  and  Its  Ballads,  in  London  Times,  June  27,  1913; 
p.  46. 


76  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

clumsy  devices  invented  in  the  eighteenth  century  by 
Kay  and  Cartwright. 

To  the  end  of  his  days  Cartwright  remained  a 
gentle  Oxonian  poet,  unspoiled  by  his  inventions, 
which  he  regarded  as  a  contribution  to  the  welfare 
of  his  fellows.  He  devised  a  machine  for  combing 
wool,  and  experimented  with  steam  engines.  It  is 
even  recorded  that  he  once  constructed  a  model  of  a 
steam  engine  attached  to  a  barge,  which  he  explained 
about  1793  to  Robert  Fulton,  then  a  student  of  paint- 
ing under  West ;  and  that  he  predicted  the  day  when 
both  ships  and  land-carriages  should  be  propelled 
by  steam.  Of  an  absent  turn  of  mind,  it  is  said 
that  he  would  sometimes  fail  to  recognize  his  own 
poems,  and  that  on  one  occasion  he  expressed  amaze- 
ment on  being  shown  the  small  model  of  an  ingen- 
ious machine  that  he  himself  had  devised!  Among 
his  unpatented  projects  may  be  mentioned  the  appli- 
cation of  the  tread-wheel  to  the  working  of  cranes ; 
an  apparatus  for  beating  or  kneading  dough,  which 
was  used  in  his  own  family;  a  reaping  machine;  a 
*  *  dibbling  machine ' '  for  planting  wheat ;  and  a  car- 
riage to  be  moved  by  human  labor,  that  is  to  say,  a 
precursor  of  the  bicycle  and  automobile.^  Parlia- 
ment bestowed  on  him  a  grant  of  £10,000,  which  was 
barely  sufficient  to  reimburse  him  for  the  loss  of  a 
handsome  private  fortune  that  he  had  thrown  into 
the  development  of  his  loom  and  of  his  unsuccessful 
factory  at  Doncaster.  Living  to  a  ripe  age,  he  be- 
came in  his  eightieth  year  the  patriarch  of  contem- 

6  Rummaging  in  the  Bodleian  Library  among  the  pamphlets  of 
this  period,  the  writer  found  an  amusing  evidence  of  inventive 
genius  in  the  claim  of  one  J.  Dubois  that  he  had  devised  a  machine 
that  could  "Shave  60  Men  a  Minute"!  In  1745  Dubois  published 
"A  perspective  view  and  section  of  an  engine  proposed  to  be  bmlt 
.  .  .  which  toill  shave  60  men  a  minute." 


CEOMPTON  AND  CARTWRIGHT         77 

poraneous  British  poets,  numbering  407  individuals, 
as  Wooderoft  quaintly  assures  us.  Crabbe  left 
among  his  Letters  a  terse  sketch  of  Cartwright's 
appearance  and  manners:  "Few  persons  could  tell 
a  good  story  so  well,  no  man  make  more  of  a  trite 
one.  I  can  just  remember  him,  the  portly,  dignified 
old  gentleman  of  the  last  generation,  grave  and 
polite,  but  full  of  humor  and  spirit." 


CHAPTER  17 

WATT  AND  DAVY  ^ 

By  the  startling  development  of  the  cotton  trade 
the  whole  face  of  England  had  been  altered.  To- 
wards the  end  of  the  century  zeal  for  the  new  in- 
dustry became  so  intense  that,  as  Radcliffe  reported, 
"Fabrics  made  from  wool  and  linen  vanished,  while 
the  old  loom-shops  being  insufficient,  every  lumber- 
room,  even  old  barns,  cart-houses,  and  out-buildings 
of  any  description,  were  repaired,  windows  broke 
through  the  old  blank  walls,  and  all  fitted  up  for 
loom-shops.  This  source  of  making  room  being  at 
length  exhausted,  new  weavers'  cottages,  with  loom- 
shops,  rose  up  in  every  direction;  all  immediately 
filled,  and,  when  in  full  work,  the  weekly  circulation 
of  money,  as  the  price  of  labor  only,  rose  to  five 
times  the  amount  ever  before  experienced. ' '  ^ 

But  the  growth  proceeded  further.  Villages  be- 
came towns,  towns  grew  into  cities,  and  factories 
started  up  on  barren  heath  and  desert  waste.  As 
Toynbee  says,  we  are  accustomed  to  think  that,  how- 
ever the  life  of  man  may  alter,  the  earth  on  which 
he  moves  must  remain  the  same.  But  here  the  revo- 
lutions in  man's  life  have  stamped  themselves  upon 
the  very  face  of  nature.    The  great  landmarks,  such 

1  Chief  authority :  H.  Brougham,  Lives  of  Men  of  Letters  and 
Science  Who  Flourished  in  the  Time  of  George  III:  London,  1845; 
vol.  i. 

2  Wm.  RadclifTe,  Origin  of  Power-Loom  Weaving;  cited  by  Baines, 
pp.  338-339. 

78 


WATT  AND  DAVY  79 

as  mountain  ranges,  river  channels,  inlets  and 
estuaries,  are  for  the  most  part  unaltered ;  but  noth- 
ing else  remains  the  same.  "For  desolate  moors 
and  fens,  for  vast  tracts  of  unenclosed  pasturage 
and  masses  of  woodland,  we  have  now  corn-fields 
and  orchards,  and  crowded  cities  with  their  canopies 
of  smoke. "  ^ 

It  was  the  general  application  of  steam  to  the  driv- 
ing of  machinery,  and  the  consequent  erection  of 
gigantic  factories  grouped  in  towns  and  cities,  that 
struck  down  the  little  master,  half -manufacturer  and 
half-farmer,  while  in  his  place  there  sprang  up  as 
by  magic  the  great  capitalist  employer,  dubbed 
** captain  of  industry"  by  Thomas  Carlyle  in  1843* 
— owner  of  hundreds  of  looms,  employer  of  thou- 
sands of  men,  women,  and  children ;  buying  and  sell- 
ing in  every  market  on  the  globe.^ 

James  Watt  (1736-1819)  took  out  his  first  patent 
on  the  steam-engine  in  1769,  the  year  in  which  Ark- 
wright  invented  the  spinning-frame.  Leaving  his 
home  at  Greenock  when  eighteen,  he  had  served  for 
a  year  as  apprentice  to  an  instrument  maker  in  Lon- 
don; but  in  1757  gained  the  opportunity  of  his  life, 
as  it  proved,  by  securing  appointment  as  maker  of 
mathematical  instruments  to  Glasgow  University, 
where  he  came  under  the  patronage  of  Adam  Smith, 
who  in  1776  published  ''The  Wealth  of  Nations." 
Here,  in  the  winter  of  1763-64,  the  professor  of 
physics  asked  Watt  to  repair  a  small  model  of  New- 
comen's  engine,  owned  by  the  University;  and  out 
of  his  study  of  this  incomplete  and  defective  machine 
came  his  steam-engine. 

9  A.    Toynbee,    Lectures    on    the    Industrial    Revolution    of    the 
Eighteenth  Century  in  England:     London,  1908;  p.  194. 
*  Past  and  Present,  ch.  iv. 
6  Toynbee,  as  cited,  p.  205. 


80  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

Into  this  invention  Watt  threw  genuine  scientific 
research.  His  predecessors  in  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution were  mechanicians  of  genius,  but  Watt  was  a 
scientific  investigator.  **Even  the  double  and  triple 
and  quadruple  expansion  engines,"  declared  Lord 
Kelvin,  *'by  which  the  highest  modern  economy  for 
power  and  steam  engines  has  been  obtained,  are 
splendid  mechanical  developments  of  the  principle 
of  expansion,  discovered  and  published  by  Watt,  and 
used,  though  to  a  comparatively  limited  extent,  in 
his  own  engines."  ®  Lord  Jeffrey's  eloquent  tribute 
to  the  perfection  of  Watt's  machine  is  well  known: 
"The  trunk  of  an  elephant,  that  can  pick  up  a  pin 
or  rend  an  oak,  is  as  nothing  to  it.  It  can  engrave 
a  seal,  and  crush  masses  of  obdurate  metal  before  it ; 
draw  out,  without  breaking,  a  thread  as  fine  as  gos- 
samer, and  lift  a  ship  of  war  like  a  bauble  in  the  air. 
It  can  embroider  muslin  and  forge  anchors,  and  im- 
pel loaded  vessels  against  the  fury  of  the  winds  and 
waves. ' '  ^ 

The  use  of  the  new  invention  spread  very  rapidly. 
In  1781  Watt's  partner,  Matthew  Boulton,  wrote  to 
him  that  "the  people  in  London,  Manchester  are  all 
steam-mill  mad. ' '  In  1785  the  new  power  was  intro- 
duced into  the  cotton  industry,  an  engine  being  built 
for  Robinson's  cotton  mill  in  Nottinghamshire;  in 
1790,  Arkwright  adopted  steam  in  his  own  factory. 
By  the  year  1800  it  was  established  as  the.  motive 
power  of  the  day. 

Its  use  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  cotton 
trade.  Saw-mills  in  America,  sugar-mills  in  the 
West  Indies,  paper-mills,  flour-mills,  engines  for  flint 
igrinding  in  the  potteries,  were  ordered  in  quick  suc- 

« Cited  by  Andrew  Carnegie,  James  Watt:  New  York,  1905; 
pp.  227-229. 


WATT  AND  DAVY  81 

cession.  The  iron  trade,  among  many  others,  was 
heavily  stimulated,  and  the  demand  for  wood  fuel 
became  so  great  that  the  forests  were  by  way  of  be- 
coming completely  denuded,  so  that  Parliament  seri- 
ously considered  the  suppression  of  iron  manufac- 
ture to  save  the  woods.  Just  at  this  juncture  it  was 
proved  possible  to  substitute  coal  for  wood;  and 
thereupon  only  one  other  invention  was  needed  to 
make  England  **the  workshop  of  the  world." 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  (1778-1829)  supplied  this 
want  by  his  invention  of  the  safety  lamp  for  miners 
in  1815.  Coal  diggers,  constantly  exposed  to  the 
dangers  of  fire-damp,  had  been  subject  to  destruc- 
tion, without  a  moment's  warning,  in  the  most 
frightful  catastrophes.  Davy's  invention,  by  enab- 
ling the  most  dangerous  mines  to  be  worked  with 
comparative  safety,  augmented  to  an  extraordinary 
degree  the  available  supplies  of  coal. 

Walpole  has  admirably  summed  up  the  work  of 
these  great  men  who  did  so  much  to  bring  about  the 
Industrial  Eevolution  of  England.  A  series  of  ex- 
traordinary inventions,  as  he  says,  had  supplied 
Great  Britain  with  a  new  manufacturing  vigor. 
Har greaves,  Arkwright,  Crompton,  and  Cartwright 
had  developed,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  the  produc- 
ing power  of  man ;  Watt  had  given  a  new  significance 
to  their  inventions  by  superseding  the  feeble  and 
unequal  forces  which  had  hitherto  been  used,  with 
the  most  tractable  and  powerful  of  agents.  And 
Davy,  by  his  beneficent  contrivance,  had  enabled 
coal  to  be  won  with  less  danger,  and  had  relieved 
the  miner's  life  from  one  of  its  most  hideous  perils. 
The  ingenuity  of  these  great  men  had  been  exercised 
with  different  objects;  but  the  inventions  of  each  of 
them  had  given  fresh  importance  to  the  discoveries 


82         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

of  the  others.  The  spinning- jenny,  the  water-frame, 
and  the  mule  would  have  been  deprived  of  half  their 
value  if  they  had  not  been  supplemented  with  the 
power-loom ;  the  power-loom  would,  in  many  places, 
have  been  useless  without  the  steam-engine;  the 
steam-engine  would  have  been  idle,  had  it  not  been 
for  coal;  the  coal  would  not  have  been  won  without 
danger,  had  it  not  been  for  Sir  Humphry  DavyJ 

The  close  association  of  this  group  of  inventors 
strikingly  illustrates  the  fact,  which  Professor 
Taussig  points  out,  that  the  genius  who  reaches  the 
crowning  achievement  is  not  isolated;  he  is  borne 
forward  by  the  sweep  of  a  large  movement.^  This 
is  the  history  of  most  inventions.  The  pressure  of 
industrial  circumstances  directs  the  intelligence  of 
many  minds  towards  the  comprehension  of  some  sin- 
gle central  point  of  difficulty,  the  common  knowledge 
of  the  age  induces  many  to  reach  similar  solutions : 
that  solution  which  is  slightly  better  adapted  to  the 
facts  or  ''grasps  the  skirts  of  happy  chance"  comes 
out  victorious.  Hobson  says  that  no  one  of  the  tex- 
tile inventions  that  were  greatest  in  their  effect,  the 
jenny,  the  water-frame,  the  mule,  the  power-loom, 
was  in  the  main  attributable  to  the  effort  or  ability 
of  a  single  man,  after  all.  Each  represented  in  its 
successful  shape  the  addition  of  many  successive  in- 
crements of  discovery ;  in  most  cases  the  successful 
invention  was  the  slightly  superior  survivor  of  many 
similar  attempts.®  These  considerations,  however, 
need  not  prevent  us  from  honoring  the  memory  of 

7S.  Walpole,  History  of  England  since  1815:  London,  1878; 
cited  by  B.  Band  in  Selections  Illustrating  Economic  History  since 
the  Seven  Years'  War:     London  and  New  York,  1903;  pp.  53-54. 

8  F.  W.  Taussig,  Some  Aspects  of  the  TariflF  Question :  Cambridge, 
1915;  p.  277. 

»  J.  A.  Hobson,  The  Evolution  of  Modem  Capitalism ;  a  Study  of 
Machine  Production:     London  and  Felling-on-T^e,  1906;  p.  79. 


WATT  AND  DAVY  83 

those  persistent  workers  who,  when  triumphant  in 
the  cuhnination  of  a  response  to  the  needs  of  that 
society  of  which  they  formed  a  part,  were  so  often 
robbed  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor  and  rewarded  only 
with  obloquy. 


CHAPTER  18 
bbindley/s  canals* 

It  only  remains  to  name  one  other  great  English 
inventor,  whose  inborn  and  amazing  genius  as  a 
transportation  engineer  linked  factory  towns  and 
seaports  by  means  of  artificial  water-ways  so  that 
the  great  cotton  trade  and  the  other  industries  of 
England  might  find  an  easy  and  economical  channel 
to  the  markets  of  the  world.  While  the  locomotive 
and  steamboat  still  lay  dormant  in  the  engine  of 
Watt,  Brindley's  canals  had  harnessed  rivers  as 
servitors  to  "captains  of  industry."  To  him  water 
in  a  river  was  a  furious  giant  overturning  every- 
thing, whereas,  *4f  you  lay  the  giant  flat  on  his  back, 
he  loses  all  his  force  whatever  his  size  may  be." 

Interrogated  on  another  occasion  before  the  House 
of  Commons  he  showed  so  great  contempt  for  un- 
harnessed rivers  that  an  amused  member  asked  him 
for  what  purpose,  then,  he  deemed  rivers  to  have 
been  created.  **To  feed  canals,"  replied  this  self- 
taught  engineer,  whose  name  is  well  worth  remem- 
bering at  this  time  when  the  river-fed  Panama  Canal 
ties  oceans  together  and  bridges  the  space  between 
worlds. 

James  Brindley  (1716-1772),  a  self-made  man  if 
ever  there  was  one,  sprang  from  a  millwright  ap- 
prenticeship to  be  the  foremost  engineer  of  his  time 
by  the  sheer  force  of  his  unaided  genius.    Although 

1  Chief  authority:     H.  Howe,  as  cited. 

84 


BKINDLEY'S  CANALS  85 

to  the  end  of  his  life  he  could  hardly  write  his  name, 
and  is  reported  as  being  barely  able  to  read  * '  on  any 
very  pressing  occasion,"  his  mind  was  characterized 
by  comprehensiveness  and  grandeur  of  conception, 
as  well  as  a  keenness  of  analytical  penetration 
that  laid  open  at  a  stroke  the  most  intricate  en- 
gineering diflSculties.  The  Duke  of  Bridgewater, 
acquainted  with  Brindley's  rare  genius,  and  aware 
of  his  success  with  the  novel  Sankey  Canal,  chal- 
lenged him  to  connect  Manchester  with  Liverpool, 
across  both  the  Irwell  and  the  Mersey.  Brindley 
leaped  to  this  challenge,  and  defied  all  discourage- 
ment by  spanning  the  rivers  with  aqueducts,  on 
which  might  frequently  be  seen  one  vessel  passing 
along,  while  another,  with  all  masts  and  sails  stand- 
ing, held  undisturbed  to  a  transverse  course  beneath 
its  keel. 

While  this  undertaking  was  in  progress,  Brindley 
was  engaged  by  Lord  Gower  to  connect  the  Trent 
with  the  Mersey,  thus  uniting  the  East  and  West 
coasts.  This  meant  not  only  many  aqueducts,  but 
five  tunnels,  one  of  which,  through  Harecastle  Hill, 
had  to  be  bored  through  the  rock  for  a  distance  of 
8,640  feet  at  a  depth  of  two  hundred  feet  below  the 
surface.  The  amazement  excited  by  the  successful 
execution  of  this  plan  is  well  reflected  in  a  contempo- 
raneous ''journalese"  account,  as  follows: 

''Gentlemen  come  to  view  our  eighth  wonder  of 
the  world,  the  subterranean  navigation  which  is  cut- 
ting by  the  great  Mr.  Brindley,  who  handles  rocks 
as  easily  as  you  would  plum-pies,  and  makes  the  four 
elements  subservient  to  his  will.  He  is  as  plain  a 
looking  man  as  one  of  the  boors  of  the  Peak,  or  one 
of  his  own  carters;  but  when  he  speaks  all  ears 
listen,  and  every  mind  is  filled  with  wonder  at  the 


86  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

things  he  pronounces  to  be  practicable.  He  has  cut 
a  mile  through  bogs  which  he  binds  up,  embanking 
them  with  stones,  which  he  gets  out  of  other  parts  of 
the  navigation,  besides  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  into 
the  hill  Yelden,  on  the  side  of  which  he  has  a  pump, 
which  is  worked  by  water,  and  a  stove,  the  fire  of 
which  sucks  through  a  pipe  the  damps  that  would 
annoy  the  men  who  are  cutting  towards  the  center 
of  the  hill.  The  clay  he  cuts  out  serves  for  brick 
to  arch  the  subterraneous  part,  which  we  heartily 
wish  to  see  finished  to  Wilden  Ferry,  when  we  shall 
be  able  to  send  coals  and  pots  to  London,  and  to 
different  parts  of  the  globe." 

Once  begun,  canal  building  went  forward  rapidly, 
but  not  more  so  than  the  construction  of  new  and 
better  roads.  Sir  Henry  Wood  estimates  that  be- 
tween 1760  and  1774  no  fewer  than  452  Acts  were 
passed  for  making  and  repairing  highways ;  ^  and 
quotes  a  writer  of  1767  ^  as  thus  contrasting  the  con- 
ditions of  the  roads  in  his  own  time  with  their  state 
in  the  time  of  Queen  Anne:  ''There  never  was  a 
more  astonishing  Revolution  accomplished  in  the 
internal  system  of  any  country,  than  has  been  within 
the  compass  of  a  few  years,  in  that  of  England. 
The  carriage  of  Grain,  Coals,  Merchandise,  etc.,  is 
in  general  conducted  with  little  more  than  half  the 
number  of  Horses  with  which  it  formerly  was. 
Journies  of  Business  are  performed  with  more  than 
double  expedition.  Improvements  in  Agriculture 
keep  pace  with  those  of  Trade.  Everything  wears 
the  Face  of  Despatch ;  every  Article  of  our  produce 
becomes  more  valuable ;  and  the  Hinge,  upon  which 

2  H.  T.  Wood,  Industrial  England  in  the  Middle  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century:     London,  1910;  p.  31. 

8  H.  Homer,  Enquiry  into  Public  Roads. 


BBINDLEY'S  CANALS  87 

all  the  movements  turn,  is  the  Reformation  which  has 
been  made  in  our  Publick  Roads." 

Between  1760  and  1790  the  shipping  cleared  out  of 
English  ports  rose  from  471,000  tons  to  1,379,000 
tons,  and  no  doubt  the  increase  in  the  national  move- 
ments of  trade  was  quite  as  great  in  proportion. 
This  rapid  development  of  consuming  power,  made 
possible  by  better  transportation  facilities,  greatly 
cheapened  the  cost  of  the  highly  popular  cotton 
goods,  and  led  to  an  enormously  augmented  demand 
for  the  raw  material.  During  the  twenty  year 
period  between  1751  and  1771  the  annual  import  of 
raw  cotton  was  doubled,  while  from  1780  to  1800  it 
actually  increased  almost  ten-fold.^  It  is  little  won- 
der that  grave  fears  were  entertained  as  to  an  ade- 
quate source  of  supply.  The  chief  sources  for  a  long 
time  had  been  Turkey  and  the  West  Indies;  but 
manufacturers  felt  certain  that  a  larger  supply 
would  be  necessary,  and  in  1788  the  East  Indian 
Company  was  accordingly  urged  to  spur  the  cultiva- 
tion of  cotton  in  India — a  noteworthy  change  from 
the  earlier  years  of  the  century,  when  cotton  lay  un- 
der the  ban.^ 

Within  a  short  time,  however,  assistance  arrived 
from  an  entirely  unexpected  quarter,  the  Southern 

4 p.  Gaskell,   Artisans  and  Machinery:     London,    1836;    p.   336. 

5  By  the  year  1836,  the  changed  relations  of  Great  Britain  and 
India  were  indicated  by  the  following  remarks  of  M.  Dupin  to  the 
Parisian  operatives:  "The  British  navigator  travels  in  quest  of 
the  cotton  of  India;  brings  it  from  a  distance  of  4,000  leagues; 
commits  it  to  an  operation  of  the  machine  of  Arkwright,  and  of 
those  that  are  attached  to  it;  carries  back  their  products  to  the  east, 
making  them  again  travel  4,000  leagues;  and  in  spite  of  loss  of 
time,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  expense  incurred  by  this  voyage  of 
8,000  leagues,  the  cotton  manufactured  by  thfe  machinery  of  Eng- 
land becomes  less  costly  than  the  cotton  of  India  spun  and  woven 
by  the  hand,  near  the  field  that  produced  it,  and  sold  at  the  nearest 
market.  So  great  is  the  power  of  the  progress  of  machinery!"— 
Cited  by  Gaskell,  pp.  320-321. 


88    COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

States  of  the  American  Union,  where,  owing  to  the 
invention  of  the  Whitney  gin,  the  production  of  lint 
made  such  wonderful  progress  that  West  Indian 
and  Turkey  cottons  were  not  only  superseded,  but 
the  desired  augmented  supply  from  India  was  ren- 
dered unnecessary.^ 

6  For   table  showing  the  relation  between  textile  inyention  and 
cotton  manufacture  in  England,  see  Appendix  F:  la. 


CHAPTEE  19 

GENERAL  RESULTS 

The  Industrial  Eevolution  in  England  profoundly 
influenced  the  development  of  the  arts  and  sciences 
in  general,  but  naturally  in  a  practical  direction. 
While  wool  had  been  deposed  from  its  lordly 
ascendency,  the  same  machinery  that  built  up  the 
cotton  manufacture  advanced  the  facility  with  which 
wool  could  be  woven,  rendering  it  cheaper  and  bet- 
ter, the  linen  and  silk  industries  both  profiting  in 
a  similar  manner.  It  has  already  appeared  how 
intimately  the  iron  and  coal  trades  were  associated 
with  the  new  movement,  which  also  gave  impetus 
to  the  production  of  tin, — most  ancient  of  British 
exports, — with  lead,  glass,  pottery,  copper  and 
brass,  paper,  gunpowder,  and  various  metals ;  while 
brewing,  distilling,  tanning,  watch-making,  and 
printing  all  leaped  to  unaccustomed  activity.^  Cap- 
ital rapidly  accumulated,  so  that  England  was 
financially  prepared  for  the  Napoleonic  wars  when 
they  came,  her  exports  amounting  to  more  than 
£58,000,000  in  1815  as  against  £17,000,000  in  1793. 
This  gave  her  an  enormous  advantage  over  the 
battlefield  nations  of  the  Continent,^  an  advantage 
which  is  still  felt. 

1  H.  T.  Wood,  as  cited. 

2  "The  spinning-jenny  and  the  steam-engine  were  the  true  moving 
powers  of  our  fleets  and  armies." — G.  R.  Porter,  The  Progress  of  the 
Nation  in  Its  Various  Social  and  Economic  Relations  from  the  Be- 
ginning of  the  Nineteenth  Century:     London  (1838),  1912;  p.  288. 

8d 


90         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

With  this  large  accumulation  of  capital  came  a 
strange  increase  of  human  assets,  a  striking  growth 
in  population.  Previous  to  1751  the  largest  de- 
cennial increase  was  three  per  cent.  For  each  of 
the  next  three  decades  the  increase  was  six  per  cent. 
Between  1781  and  1791  it  rose  to  nine  per  cent ;  then 
to  eleven  per  cent,  and  then  to  fourteen,  while  be- 
tween 1811  and  1821  it  reached  eighteen  per  cent, 
the  highest  rate  in  the  history  of  England.  Gas- 
kell  ^  shows  that  between  1801  and  1831  the  whole 
population  increased  "rather  more  than  fifty  per 
cent,"  while  that  of  the  manufacturing  towns  in- 
creased 140  per  cent.  According  to  his  statistics, 
the  population  within  thirty  years  (1801-1831)  in- 
creased in  three  cities  as  follows: 

Liverpool     138  per  cent. 

Manchester    151  per  cent. . 

Glasgow    161  per  cent. 

So  striking  was  this  feature  of  the  Industrial 
Revolution,  even  in  its  earlier  stages,  that  Sir 
Robert  Peel  said  in  1806:  **In  the  cotton  trade,  ma- 
chinery has  given  birth  to  a  new  population;  it  has 
promoted  the  comforts  of  the  population  to  such  a 
degree  that  early  marriages  have  been  resorted  to, 
and  a  great  increase  of  numbers  has  been  occasioned 
by  it,  and  I  may  say  that  they  have  given  rise  to  an 
additional  race  of  men. ' '  * 

This  is  the  Robert  Peel  who  brought  calico  print- 
ing to  the  highest  stage  of  efficiency  that  it  reached 
in  England  until  Bell  invented  the  cylinder  process 
in  1785.  The  art  of  printing  by  blocks  had  been  in- 
vented by  the  Arabs,  who  thus  accomplished  a  great 

8  As  cited,  pp.  197,  199, 

*Parl.  Report,  p.  440;  A,  Toynbee,  as  cited,  p.  67,  note. 


GENEEAL  EESULTS  91 

advance  over  the  ancient  Hindu  method  of  painting 
by  hand.  Print  work  in  England  was  curiously  fos- 
tered by  the  act  of  1700  prohibiting  the  importation 
of  the  beautiful  India  calicoes,  in  response  to  such 
complaints  as  that  cited  on  page  45.  Foreign  prints 
being  thus  shut  out  by  law,  the  growing  taste  for 
such  gewgaws  could  only  be  satisfied  by  domestic 
production;  so  the  infant  trade  of  British  printing 
expanded,  with  the  adventitious  aid  of  this  law,  un- 
til at  length  the  Peels  took  it  up  on  their  great  estate 
near  Blackburn  with  such  energy  and  intelligence 
that  the  history  of  their  house  may  be  said  to  con- 
stitute the  history  of  the  calico  business  in  Lan- 
cashire for  many  years. 

No  doubt  the  eminent  statesman,  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
grandson  of  the  Peel  who  first  took  up  the  cotton 
printing  trade,  was  more  or  less  influenced  by  the 
traditions  of  his  family  when,  in  1846,  he  secured 
the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  thus  lifting  the  cot- 
ton manufacturer  to  at  least  an  equal  footing  with 
the  agriculturist,  or  land-owner,  by  the  adoption 
of  a  free  trade  policy.  The  British  system  of  pro- 
tection (unlike  that  of  the  United  States)  had  pro- 
tected the  land-owner  at  the  expense  of  the  manu- 
facturer ;  so  that  the  repeal  of  this  protective  system 
reacted  favorably  on  the  English  cotton  trade,  being 
a  victory  of  cotton  over  *'corn,"^  a  triumph  of  the 
newly  arrived  captains  of  industry  and  commerce 
over  the  hereditary  'landed  aristocracy." 

In  fact,  the  entire  British  commerce  now  entered 
an  epoch  of  the  most  extraordinary  development, 
leading  Professor  Pollard  to  declare  that  the  com- 
mercial expansion  of  England,  as  well  as  its  political 
emancipation,  resulted  from  the  Industrial  Revo- 

6  See  Appendix  D. 


92  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

lution.  **Not  till  the  Industrial  Eevolution  had 
changed  the  face  of  England  did  the  old  political 
forces  acknowledge  their  defeat  and  surrender  their 
claim  to  govern  the  nation  against  its  will;"  while 
the  development  of  trading  footholds  into  great 
self-governing  communities — **the  unique  and  real 
achievement  of  the  British  Empire" — depended  for 
accomplishment  upon  the  effects  of  the  changes 
known  to  us  as  the  Industrial  Eevolution.® 

Arnold  Toynbee  emphasizes  the  interesting  fact 
that  the  opening  and  closing  years  of  the  Industrial 
Eevolution  in  England  were  signalized  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  two  famous  works,  dealing,  singularly 
enough,  with  wealth  and  poverty  respectively — ''The 
Wealth  of  Nations"  by  Adam  Smith  in  1776,  and 
Malthus's  "Essay  on  Population"  in  1798 J  The 
work  of  Malthus,  with  its  far-reaching  effects,  we 
shall  shortly  consider.^  For  the  present  it  may  be 
found  of  interest,  in  this  brief  survey  of  the  social 
changes  with  which  the  Industrial  Eevolution  had 
something  to  do,  to  note  the  impression  made  on 
Toynbee 's  mind  by  the  association  of  Adam  Smith 
and  James  Watt  at  Glasgow,^  together  with  an  in- 
teresting development  of  the  same  idea  by  a  leading 
American  economist. 

The  production  of  wealth  was  what  Adam  Smith 
had  primarily  before  his  mind's  eye;  "the  great  ob- 
ject of  the  Political  Economy  of  every  country,"  he 
wrote,  "is  to  increase  the  riches  and  power  of  that 
country."  He  was,  moreover,  an  enemy  to  the 
political,    industrial,    and    commercial    restrictions 

«A.  F.  Pollard,  as  cited;  pp.  192,  149,  173,  190,  196. 
'  Toynbee,  as  cited,  pp.  64-65. 
8  See  Chapter  21. 
eSee  page  79. 


GENEEAL  EESULTS  93 

that  enthralled  the  England  of  his  time,  restrictions 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  unsuspected  but  immi- 
nent Industrial  Revolution  was  destined  to  throw 
off.  Nothing  could  be  more  interesting,  thinks 
Toynbee,  than  the  story  of  James  Watt,  threatened 
in  the  practise  of  his  trade  by  the  guild  of  mechanics 
in  Glasgow,  but  admitted  by  Professor  Smith  within 
the  walls  of  the  University,  and  allowed  to  set  up 
his  workshop, — ^wherein,  by  inventing  the  steam- 
engine,  he  was  to  make  possible  the  realization  of 
that  industrial  wealth  and  commercial  freedom  which 
Smith  himself  regarded  as  Utopian.  The  England 
described  by  Adam  Smith,  says  Toynbee,  differed 
more  from  the  England  of  to-day  than  it  did  from 
the  England  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  cotton  manu- 
facture is  mentioned  only  once  in  his  book.  The 
staple  industries  of  the  land  were  still  wool,  tanned 
leather,  and  hardware,  silk  and  linen  coming  next 
in  importance.  Wool,  flax,  and  silk  were  spun  and 
woven  in  scattered  villages  by  families  who  eked 
out  their  existence  by  agriculture.  *  *  Manufacturer '  * 
meant  not  the  owner  of  power-looms  and  steam- 
engines  and  factories,  buying  and  selling  in  the 
markets  of  the  world,  but  the  actual  weaver  at  his 
loom,  the  actual  spinner  at  her  wheel.  Seven  years 
before  the  publication  of  "The  Wealth  of  Nations,'* 
however,  Arkwright  had  patented  his  water-frame 
and  James  Watt  his  steam-engine.  A  few  years 
after  its  publication  Cartwright  invented  the  power- 
loom,  Crompton  the  mule.  It  was  by  these 
discoveries  that  population  was  drawn  out  of  cot- 
tages in  remote  valleys  by  secluded  streams  and 
driven  together  into  factories  and  cities.  Old  re- 
strictions became  obsolete  by  sheer  force  of  neces- 


94  COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

sity,  and  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine  literally 
called  into  being  *'the  wealth  of  nations"  of  which 
Adam  Smith  had  dreamed.^'' 

Dr.  John  Bates  Clark  ^^  applies  the  same  idea  to 
America.  ''How  far,"  he  asks, — ^**how  far  into  the 
intimate  recesses  of  social  life  and  individual  life 
have  gone  the  influences  that  emanated  from  the  in- 
vention of  James  Watt  and  from  those  of  Har- 
greaves,  Crompton,  and  the  endless  succession  of 
men  who  followed  after  them?  They  have  done 
much  more  than  merely  to  multiply  the  physical  re- 
sults of  labor.  We  have  become  different  mentally 
and  morally  from  what  we  should  have  been  if  the 
mechanical  improvements  had  never  taken  place. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  steam-engine  led  to  the  multi- 
plying of  textile  machinery,  that  to  the  factory  sys- 
tem and  that  to  a  course  of  centralization  which  has 
gathered  vast  populations  into  producing  centers. 
As  the  use  of  machinery  in  America  has  extended 
to  almost  every  productive  operation,  it  has  carried 
this  centralizing  process  to  very  great  lengths  and 
in  the  briefest  time.  It  has  led  to  a  fierce  competi- 
tion in  every  department  of  business,  and  this  strug- 
gle has  sought  to  end  itself  by  the  building  up  of 
what  we  call  'trusts.'  During  the  period  of  com- 
petition and  well  into  the  period  of  growing  con- 
solidation another  type  of  contest  has  been  waging — 
that  between  employers  and  employed  in  each  of  the 
different  occupations.  While  the  automatic  ma- 
chine, the  modern  genius  of  the  lamp,  has  been  turn- 
ing out  forms  of  utility  in  profusion,  masters  and 
workmen  have  been  contending  over  the  sharing  of 

10  Toynbee,  as  cited,  pp.  151-152. 

11  In  the  General  Introduction  to  a  Documentary  History  of  Ameri- 
can Industrial  Society:     Cleveland,  1910;  vol.  i,  p.  38  S. 


GENERAL  EESULTS  95 

them;  and  here  again  organization  has  played  its 
part  and  the  effects  have  been  far  reaching.  We 
have  our  national  unions  of  employees  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  employers  on  the  other. 

"We  look  to  England  for  the  beginnings  of  the 
use  of  machinery,  but  we  find  in  our  own  country 
the  largest  application  of  it  and  the  greatest  results 
it  has  as  yet  produced;  and  it  has  resulted  from 
this  that  American  class  struggles  offer  especially 
fertile  fields  of  study.  If  there  be  any  probability 
in  the  legend  that  the  steam-engine  is  traceable  to 
the  suggestion  which  James  Watt  got  from  watch- 
ing his  aunt's  kettle  and  seeing  the  pressure  of 
steam  raising  the  lid  of  it  and  the  escape  of  the 
steam  letting  it  fall,  then  that  mythical  scene  might 
well  be  the  special  symbol  of  American  development. 
It  is  without  doubt  true  that  what  James  Watt  ac- 
complished, as  a  young  man  working  in  a  room  in 
the  University  of  Glasgow  under  the  patronage  of 
Adam  Smith,  had  everything  to  do  with  this  develop- 
ment. The  year  1776,  which  made  the  United  States 
an  independent  nation,  and  which  also  saw  the  publi- 
cation of  Adam  Smith's  'Wealth  of  Nations,'  saw 
the  steam-engine,  which  was  destined  to  play  so  im- 
portant a  part  in  shaping  the  life  of  the  country,  as- 
suming an  efficient  form.  In  a  way  the-  industrial 
life  of  America,  if  it  was  not  brewing  in  the  mythical 
tea  kettle,  was  taking  shape  in  the  Glasgow  work- 
shop. Steam  and  its  consequences  have  been  all  im- 
portant. 

**It  would  be  too  much  to  claim  that  the  effect  of 
machinery  has  reached  other  nations  by  way  of  the 
United  States,  although  in  the  case  of  many  specific 
appliances  this  has  been  true.  In  some  departments 
we  have  been  leaders  and  teachers.    What  is  clear  is 


96    COTTON  AS  A  :WOELD  POWEE 

that  the  effects  which  machinery  has  produced  in  the 
United  States  have  resembled  in  kind  and  exceeded  in 
number  and  degree  those  which  it  has  produced  else- 
where. The  mechanical  genius  of  the  lamp  has  in 
this  country  gone  into  every  part  of  the  field  of  pro- 
duction. 

"With  this  transformation  there  has  come  in 
America,  in  a  conspicuous  way,  the  centralizing  of 
industries,  the  fierce  competition,  the  combination  of 
rival  producers,  and  the  struggle  against  monopoly, 
which  are  the  features  of  present-day  life.  We  have 
more  trusts  and  stronger  ones  than  have  most  coun- 
tries, and  we  have  strong  trade  unions  and  growing 
socialistic  parties.  We  can  see  how  all  this  is  con- 
nected with  that  complete  transformation  of  prac- 
tical life  which  machinery  has  produced." 


CHAPTER  20 

'* CAPTAINS  OF  industry" 

The  Industrial  Revolution  in  England  was  at- 
tended with  very  grave  evils.  As  Pollard  says,  most 
of  our  present  social  problems  may  be  traced,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  to  this  source.^  For  it  is  true,  as 
Karl  Marx  pointed  out,  that  in  changing  the  modes 
of  production,  mankind  changes  all  its  social  rela- 
tions :  the  hand-mill  creates  a  society  with  the  feudal 
lord,  the  steam-mill  a  society  with  the  industrial 
capitalist  2 — Carlyle's  original  "captain  of  in- 
dustry," whose  only  idea  of  hell  was  the  idea  of 
*'not  making  money,"  and  whose  attitude  toward 
philanthropy  was  expressed  in  the  declaration  of 
Lord  Brougham  that  **  charity  is  an  interference  with 
a  healing  process  of  Nature,  which  acts  by  increasing 
the  rate  of  mortality,  thereby  raising  wages  !"^ 

This  first  generation  of  industrial  chiefs,  newly 
rich,  uneducated,  rough  and  brutal,  were  strangers 
to  those  family  traditions  and  moral  considerations 

1  As  cited,  p.  197. 

2  Misfire  de  la  Pliilosophie,  pp.  99-100;  translation  of  E.  R.  A. 
Seligman,  in  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History:  New  York, 
1912;  p.  35. 

3  Schulze-Gaevernitz,  Social  Peace  (Zum  Socialen  Frieden)  :  Lon- 
don, 1900;  p.  25.  This  statement  of  Brougham's  is  well  matched 
by  the  dictum  of  Malthus:  "Benevolence  indeed  as  the  great  and 
constant  source  of  action  would  require  the  most  perfect  knowledge 
of  cause  and  eflFect,  and  therefore  can  only  be  the  attribute  of  the 
Deity  In  a  being  so  short-sighted  as  man,  it  would  lead  to  the 
grossest  errors,  and  soon  transform  the  fair  and  cultivated  soil  of 
civilized  society  into  a  dreary  scene  of  want  and  confusion." — Essay 
on  Population,  ed.  1872,  p.  492. 

87. 


98  COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

that  impose  some  restraint  on  hereditary  wealth. 
They  were  in  the  habit  of  talking,  not  of  their  men, 
but  of  the  ** hands"  they  employed;  regarding  them 
not  as  human  beings,  but  as  mere  instruments  for 
production  of  capital.^  Operatives  were  not  only 
herded  like  cattle  in  unsanitary  surroundings,^  but 
treated  as  veritable  slaves;^  labor  was  actually 
bought  from  the  workhouses,  it  being  sometimes 
stipulated  by  the  parish  authorities  that  one  idiot 
must  be  taken  with  every  score  of  sane  children,  so 
as  to  be  rid  of  the  imbeciles  J 

Women  as  well  as  children  were  victimized.  Lord 
Ashley's  report  to  Parliament^  showed  that  so  re- 
cently as  1839  factory  *' hands"  were  classified  as 
follows : 

Male  Female 

Over  18  years  of  age 96,569  130,104 

Under  18  years  of  age 80,695  112,192 


177,264  242,296 

Dr.  Gaskell  says  that  the  factory  was  not  seldom 
the  harem  of  the  employer ;  ^  mothers  of  fifteen  years 
of  age  not  being  exceptional,  and  a  condition  ap- 
proaching *'free  love"  existing  among  the  opera- 

*  Schulze-Gaevernitz,  Social  Peace,  as  cited,  pp.  18,  26,  30,  32; 
GaBkell,  ch.  iii. 

5  Gaskell  wrote  in  1836  that  upwards  of  20,000  Individuals  were 
living  in  cellars  in  Manchester  alone. — p.  82.  His  work  is  the  best 
source-book  for  this  general  topic;  being  accurately  described  by 
its  sub-titles,  "The  Moral  and  Physical  Condition  of  the  Manufac- 
turing Population  Considered  with  Reference  to  Mechanical  Substi- 
tutes for  Human  Labor."  It  is  the  chief  source  of  the  well-known 
work  by  Friedrich  Engels,  Die  Lage  der  Arbeitenden  Klasaen  m 
England  (1843). 

«  "There  can  be  no  doubt  that  far  greater  misery  prevailed  than 
in  the  Southern  States  during  the  era  of  slavery." — Wm.  Clarke  in 
Fabian  Essays:    London,  1889;  p.  75. 

7  Gibbins,  as  cited,  p.  179. 

8  Social  Peace,  p.  35. 

•  Artisans  and  Machinery:     London,   1836;   ch.  iii. 


^^CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTEy  99 

tives.^^  Children  were  often  worked  for  sixteen 
hours  of  the  twenty-four,  the  term  of  their  labor  be- 
ing sometimes  marked  only  by  exhaustion  after  vari- 
ous forms  of  torture  had  been  applied  to  *' stimu- 
late" them.  To  prevent  their  running  away,  sus- 
pects frequently  had  irons  riveted  on  their  ankles, 
with  chains  reaching  up  to  their  hips,  and  in  this 
harness  were  compelled  to  work  and  sleep.^^ 

It  must  not  be  forgot,  on  the  other  hand,  that  meas- 
ures for  the  protection  of  factory  operatives  had 
their  beginning  with  two  British  "captains  of  in- 
dustry," Sir  Robert  Peel  the  elder  and  Robert  Owen, 
founder  of  English  Socialism.  In  addition  to  the 
management  of  his  great  calico  factory  near  Black- 
burn, already  mentioned.  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  an 
active  member  of  Parliament,  wherein  he  used  his 
great  powers  for  the  benefit  of  that  **  additional 
race  of  men"  to  whom,  as  he  said,  the  great  new  in- 
dustry had  given  birth.^^  He  declared  that  on  visit- 
ing his  own  factory,  which  employed  about  a  thou- 
sand children,  he  was  struck  by  their  unhealthy  ap- 
pearance and  stunted  growth ;  and  in  a  speech  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1802  he  said  expressly  that  his 
main  object  in  advocating  Factory  Laws  was  the 
improvement  of  the  religious  and  moral  condition  of 
the  children.  ^^ 

In  that  year  he  secured  the  passage  of  the  first 
of  the  Factory  Acts,  known  as  the  Apprentice 
Bill,  which  limited  the  working  day  to  twelve 
hours,  except  in  the  case  of  children  residing  near  a 
mill,  who  were  supposed  to  be  under  the  supervision 
of  their  parents.    The  Act  of  1819,  which  was  also 

10  Social  Peace,  p.  38. 

11  Gibbins,  as  cited,  p.  180. 

12  See  page  90. 

13  Social  Peace,  as  cited,  p.  71. 


100        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

introduced  by  him,  merely  adapted  that  of  1802  to 
altered  conditions.  Subsequent  Acts  accomplished 
but  little  by  way  of  amelioration  until  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury, in  1833,  secured  the  passage  of  a  law  prohibit- 
ing night  work  for  children  and  providing  for  their 
attendance  at  school;  while  the  famous  Act  of  1847 
reduced  the  labor  of  young  persons  and  women  to 
ten  hours. 

In  1823  Eobert  Owen  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
his  fellow  capitalists  in  which  he  said :  '  *  Since  the 
general  introduction  of  inanimate  mechanism  into 
British  manufactories,  man,  with  few  exceptions,  has 
been  treated  as  a  secondary  and  inferior  machine. 
Give  but  due  reflection  to  the  subject,  and  you  will 
find  that  man,  even  as  an  instrument  for  the  crea- 
tion of  wealth,  may  still  be  greatly  improved. ' ' " 

In  his  own  business  he  put  his  principles  to  the 
test.  The  spinning  mills  at  New  Lanark,  with  their 
workmen's  cottages  and  manifold  educational  and 
benevolent  institutions,  were  celebrated  far  and  wide. 
The  socialistic  community  that  he  founded  in  1823  at 
New  Harmony,  Indiana,  lasted  only  two  years,  it  is 
true;  since  he  forgot  that  his  success  at  New  Lan- 
ark depended  on  special  conditions,  such  as  his  own 
unusual  power  of  inspiring  love  and  respect,  and  the 
exceptional  character  of  the  working  people  he  had 
educated.  ^^  With  Owen  originated  the  demand  for 
universal  compulsory  education.  He  was  far  ahead 
of  his  times. 

Although  they  were  not  legalized  until  1871, 
Trades  Unions  originated  during  this  period,  in  the 
effort  of  the  working  classes  to  protect  themselves 
against  oppression  and  injustice.  The  eighteenth 
century  has  been  called  "the  century  of  strikes,"  so 

1*  The  same,  p.  68.  i5  The  same,  p.  68. 


"CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY"  101 

common  were  these  economic  and  social  disturbances 
— culminating  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  century 
following,  when,  with  banners  inscribed  **  Bread  or 
Blood,"  oppressed  factory  hands  marched  plunder- 
ing through  the  country  until  put  down  by  the  mili- 
tary forces,  as  at ' '  Peterloo. ' '  The  truth  is  that  the 
Industrial  Revolution  wrought  havoc  among  laborers 
for  a  protracted  period,  the  lowest  depth  of  super- 
induced pauperism  being  reached  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Victorian  age,  although  the  national 
wealth  was  aU  the  while  increasing  as  never  before. 
Professor  Macgregor  says :  * '  The  years  from  1800 
to  1825  were  suited  to  almost  any  doctrine  of  de- 
spair. It  was  the  age  of  everything  done  wrong. ' '  ^® 
Toynbee  said,  *'I  tremble  to  think  what  this  country 
would  have  been  but  for  the  Factory  Acts;"  while 
Professor  Gibbins  adds  that  he  dares  not  trust  him- 
self to  set  down  calmly  all  that  might  be  told  about 
this  awful  page  in  the  history  of  industrial  Eng- 
land." Carlyle  was  moved  by  it  to  Jovian  wrath 
in  his  **Past  and  Present."  Mrs.  Gaskell  specifi- 
cally portrayed  the  distressed  conditions  in  her 
**Mary  Barton,"  while  the  contemporary  poetry  re- 
flects the  sad  facts  of  the  times,  as  do  also  some  of 
the  well  known  novels  of  Kingsley,  Dickens,  and  Dis- 
raeli.^^     Townsend  Warner  wisely  says,  however, 

16  D.  H.  Macgregor,  The  Evolution  of  Industry :  London ;  pp. 
14-15.  Gaskell  wrote  in  1836:  "Upwards  of  a  million  of  human 
beings  are  literally  starving,  and  the  number  is  constantly  on  the 
increase." — as  cited,  p.  v. 

17  Gibbins,  as  cited,  p.  80. 

18  See  especially  the  writing  of  Samuel  Bamford,  himself  a  Lan- 
cashire weaver,  one  of  whose  poems  ends  as  follows: 

God  help  the  poor,  who  in  lone  valleys  dwell. 
Or  by  far  hills,  where  whin  and  heather  grow; 

Theirs  is  a  story  sad  indeed  to  tell; 

Yet  little  cares  the  world,  and  less  'twould  know 
About  the  toil  and  want  men  undergo. 


102        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

that  periods  of  progress  and  change  are  often  hard ; 
temporary  hardships  should  not  be  allowed  to  blind 
us  to  the  real  progress  denoted  by  this  great  era  of 
industry  in  England.  Schulze-Gaevernitz,  while  re- 
counting the  terrible  abuses  of  the  period,  discerns 
behind  the  outer  forms  of  the  social  life  a  great  and 
worthy  inner  movement, — **the  vast  revolution  in 
thought  which  was  to  carry  men  from  an  individual- 
istic political  economy  and  a  utilitarian  philosophy 
to  an  organic  view  of  society  and  of  the  place  and 
duties  of  the  individual."  ^^  Carlyle  himself,  in  his 
great  classic  of  denunciation,  distinguishes  carefully 
between  transitory  and  permanent.  Discharging  the 
shafts  of  his  wrath  at  greedy  ** captains  of  industry," 
he  gives  ardent  praise  to  the  inventive  geniuses  who 
made  this  captaincy  possible ;  while  the  romance  of 
the  unvanquishable  cotton  plant  wrests  from  him  an 
irresistible  eloquence: — 

*' Unstained  by  wasteful  deformities,"  he  writes, 
— *'by  wasted  tears  or  heart 's-blood  of  men,  or  any 
defacement  of  the  Pit,  noble  fruitful  Labor,  growing 
ever  nobler,  will  come  forth, — the  grand  sole  miracle 
of  Man ;  whereby  Man  has  risen  from  the  low  places 
of  this  Earth,  very  literally,  into  divine  Heavens. 
Ploughers,  Spinners,  Builders;  Prophets,  Poets, 
Kings;  Brindleys  and  Goethes,  Odins  and  Ark- 
wrights;  all  martyrs,  and  noble  men,  and  gods  are 
of  one  grand  Host;  immeasurable;  marching  ever 

The  wearying  loom  doth  call  them  up  at  morn; 

They  work  till  worn-out  nature  sinks  to  sleep ; 

They  taste,  but  are  not  fed.     The  snow  drifts  deep 

Aroimd  the  fireless  cot,  and  blocks  the  door; 

The  night  storm  hurls  a  dirge  across  the  moor; 
And  shall  they  perish  thus — oppressed  and  lorn? 
Shall  toil  and  famine,  hopeless,  still  be  borne? 

No!     God  will  yet  arise  and  help  the  poor! 

i»  Social  Peace,  p.  xx. 


^'CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTEY"  103 

forward  since  the  beginning  of  the  World.  Arachne 
started  with  forefinger  and  thumb,  and  had  not  even 
a  distaff;  yet  thou  seest  Manchester,  and  Cotton 
Cloth,  which  will  shelter  naked  backs,  at  twopence 
an  ell. — So  answers  Nature:  'Waste  desert-shrubs 
of  the  tropical  swamps  have  become  Cotton-trees; 
and  here,  under  my  furtherance,  are  verily  woven 
shirts, — hanging  unsold,  undistributed,  but  capable 
to  be  distributed,  capable  to  cover  the  bare  backs  of 
my  children  of  men.  Mountains,  as  old  as  the  Crea- 
tion, I  have  permitted  to  be  bored  through;  bitu- 
minous fuel-stores,  the  wreck  of  forests  that  were 
green  a  million  years  ago, — ^I  have  opened  them  from 
my  secret  rock-chambers,  and  they  are  yours,  ye 
English.  Your  huge  fleets,  steamships,  do  sail  the 
sea ;  huge  Indias  do  obey  you ;  from  huge  new  Eng- 
lands  and  Antipodal  Australias  comes  profit  and 
traffic  to  this  Old  England  of  Mine!'  So  answers 
Nature. — ^What  is  immethodic,  waste,  thou  shalt 
make  methodic,  regulated,  arable ;  obedient  and  pro- 
ductive to  thee.  Wheresoever  thou  findest  Disorder, 
there  is  thy  eternal  enemy ;  attack  him  swiftly,  sub- 
due him;  make  Order  of  him,  the  subject  not  of 
Chaos,  but  of  Intelligence,  Divinity  and  Thee  I  The 
thistle  that  grows  in  thy  path,  dig  it  out,  that  a  blade 
of  useful  grass,  a  drop  of  nourishing  milk,  may  grow 
there  instead.  The  waste  cotton-shrub,  gather  its 
waste  white  down,  spin  it,  weave  it ;  that  in  place  of 
idle  litter,  there  may  be  folded  webs,  and  the  naked 
skin  of  man  be  covered. ' '  ^^ 

2oCarlyIe,  Past  and  Present  (1843)  :  London,  1889;  pp.  251,  113, 
142,  169-170.  See  also  his  essay  on  Chartism,  in  Critical  and 
Miscellaneous  Essays,  vol.  iv   (1839,  1869). 


CHAPTER  21 

MALTHUS  AND  DARWIN 

Other  writers  besides  Carlyle  and  Mrs.  Gaskell 
were  perceptibly  influenced  by  the  manifold  changes 
wrought  in  England  by  means  of  the  Industrial 
Revolution.  Not  only  such  masters  of  eloquent  per- 
suasion as  these,  but  also  those  scholars  whose  brains 
were  skilled  in  cold  analysis  to  confront  new  eco- 
nomic problems  in  order  to  suggest  a  logical  mode 
of  solution  therefor  were  challenged  by  the  social 
upheaval,  and  none  with  more  notable  results  than 
Thomas  Malthus,^  who  applied  the  keen  scrutiny  of 
a  highly  gifted  scientific  mind  to  the  startling  in- 
crease in  English  j)opulation  already  noted  (see 
page  90). 

By  way  of  his  father,  who  had  been  a  friend  and 
correspondent  of  Rousseau's,  young  Malthus  found 
himself  stimulated  to  a  keen  interest  in  social  and 
political  problems.  He  was  little  disposed,  how- 
ever, to  accept  off-hand  the  plausible  political  opti- 
mism of  this  brilliant  Frenchman,  with  whose  social 
theories,  singularly  enough,  the  biological  doctrines 
of  Rousseau's  fellow  countryman,  Lamarck,  formed 
a  cheerful  and  suggestive  parallel, — both  pointing, 
as  they  did,  toward  the  "Progress  of  Humanity"  as 
the  assured  and  cheerful  goal  of  both  biology  and 
politics. 

1  An  Essav  on  the  Principle  of  Population:  London  (first  ed., 
1798). 

IM 


MALTHUS  AND  DAEWIN  105 

Malthus,  applying  himself  like  the  matter-of-fact 
country  parson  that  he  was,  to  the  evidence  of  things 
that  surrounded  him,  and  especially  to  the  misery  of 
**the  masses,"  reached  with  a  sort  of  mathematical 
exactitude  the  conclusion  that  the  enormous  increase 
in  population  which  Sir  Robert  Peel  attributed  to  the 
cotton  industry  would,  if  maintained,  soon  exceed  the 
whole  means  of  subsistence,  and  result  in  national 
calamity.  Embodying  his  argument  in  a  famous 
*' Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Population  as  it  Affects 
the  Future  Improvement  of  Society,"  Malthus 
seemed  to  evince  a  certain  gratitude  for  those  ''posi- 
tive checks"  on  the  increase  of  population,  such  as 
unwholesome  occupations,  severe  labor,  extreme  pov- 
erty, large  towns,  epidemics,  wars,  plagues,  and 
famines,  without  which  his  mathematical  formula 
might  execute  itself  with  annihilative  force.  Ex- 
pressed technically,  the  idea  of  Malthus  refers  to  the 
disproportionate  increase  of  organisms  as  compared 
with  their  means  of  subsistence ;  it  is  the  phenomenon 
of  overcrowding,  which,  combined  with  that  of  "vari- 
ation," necessitates  an  automatic  ''selection"  lead- 
ing to  a  "struggle  for  existence"  and  the  consequent 
"survival  of  the  fittest. "^ 

These  terms  are  sufficient  in  themselves  to  suggest 
the  enormous  influence  which  the  ideas  of  Malthus 
have  exerted  throughout  the  whole  world  of  thought 
by  virtue  of  the  lodgment  of  one  of  his  principles, 
forty  years  after  its  promulgation,  in  the  mind  of 
Charles  Darwin,  then  singularly  ripe  for  it.  In  the 
earlier  pages  of  his  work  on  "Animals  and  Plants  un- 
der Domestication,"  Darwin  expressly  acknowledges 
his  indebtedness  to  Malthus  in  thinking  out  his  car- 

2  J.  T.  Merz,  A  History  of  European  Thought  in  the  19th  Century: 
Edinburgh  and  London,  1912;  vol.  iii,  p.  554. 


106        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

dinal  principle  of  natural  selection.  After  the  study 
of  domestic  productions  had  given  him  a  just  idea  of 
the  power  of  selection,  he  found,  he  tells  us,  **on 
reading  Malthus  *0n  Population,'  that  natural  selec- 
tion was  the  inevitable  result  of  the  rapid  increase  of 
all  organic  beings."  In  his  autobiography  he  adds 
that  his  reading  of  Malthus  occurred  in  October, 
1838,  and  that,  being  well  prepared  by  the  results  of 
systematic  inquiry  to  appreciate  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, he  was  at  once  struck  with  the  idea  that  the 
operation  of  that  principle  would  tend  toward  the 
destruction  of  unfavorable  variations  and  the  preser- 
vation of  favorable  ones,  resulting  in  the  formation 
of  new  species. 

Wallace,  strange  to  say,  underwent  the  same  re- 
markable experience,  quite  independently  of  Dar- 
win. He  gives  a  circumstantial  account  of  the  event, 
saying  that  the  exposition  which  Malthus  had  given 
of  those  ''positive  checks"  on  increase  and  of  their 
mode  of  operation  recurred  to  him,  during  a  period 
of  enforced  leisure,  with  the  force  of  a  universal  law, 
as  it  suddenly  flashed  upon  him  that  ''this  self- 
acting  process  would  necessarily  improve  the  race, 
because  in  every  generation  the  inferior  would  in- 
evitably be  killed  off  and  the  superior  would  remain 
— that  is,  the  fittest  would  survive." 

So  it  was  that  the  impact  of  the  Malthusian  idea 
on  two  richly  stored  and  richly  gifted  minds  flashed 
into  existence  the  most  brilliant  and  far-reaching 
conception  in  the  history  of  all  modern  thought. 

The  writer  of  the  present  volume  would  not  think 
of  setting  up  a  claim  on  behalf  of  the  omnipotence  of 
the  cotton  influence  in  the  manifold  directions  where 
we  find  traces  of  it.  It  is  only  a  single  influence 
among  the  numerous  causes  of  any  important  given 


MALTHUS  AND  DAEWIN  107 

effect,  and  the  reason  for  tracing  its  ramifying  course 
lies  chiefly  in  the  fact  that  cotton  happens  to  afford 
a  typical  and  fascinating  example  of  those  economic 
factors  in  history  that  have  not  received  their  due 
share  of  attention.  No  doubt  Darwin  and  Wallace, 
without  the  intervention  of  Malthus,  might  have 
formulated  that  remarkable  doctrine  so  closely  asso- 
ciated with  their  names  and  so  influential  in  the 
transformation  of  thought  during  the  last  half -cen- 
tury. But  it  happens  that  Malthus  did  influence 
them,  and  that  Malthus,  in  a  different  economic  en- 
vironment from  that  of  Rousseau  and  Lamarck,  was 
led  to  his  studies  and  conclusions  by  the  results  of 
the  Industrial  Revolution  in  England.  What  the  in- 
cident illustrates  is  the  interdependence  of  thought ; 
and  nothing  in  the  history  of  science  is  more  inter- 
esting than  the  manner  in  which  social  theory  and 
biology  have  reacted  one  upon  the  other. 

That  distinguished  biological  writer,  Professor  J. 
Arthur  Thomson  of  Aberdeen,  believes  that  the  two 
revolutions,  French  and  English,  one  military  and 
the  other  no  less  influential  because  bloodless,  have 
expressed  themselves  through  Lamarck  and  Darwin, 
respectively,  more  clearly  than  has  ever  been 
realized..  *'It  was  the  former  period,  with  its  theo- 
ries of  society  and  of  morals,  which  gave  birth  to  the 
doctrine  of  Evolution;  while  the  latter  period,  with 
its  competitive  industry,  its  resultant  population 
question,  etc.,  has  found  its  expression  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Natural  Selection. ' '  ^ 

Carlyle  himself  could  not  paint  a  more  vivid  por- 
trait of  competitive  industrial  warfare,  nor  Malthus 
show  more  clearly  the  baneful  results  of  overcrowd- 
ing, than  the  natural  selectionist  who  tells  us  that 

»  Evolution:     London,  n.  d.;  pp.  xi-xii. 


108        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

any  sunimer  field,  though  mantled  in  softest  green, 
is  the  scene  of  a  struggle  as  widespread  and  ruthless 
as  that  of  the  fiercest  human  battlefield,  and  then 
stops  there,  as  though  that  were  the  whole  of  the 
story.  The  life,  even  of  plants,  on  any  green  sward, 
said  a  typical  exponent  of  this  doctrine  a  score  of 
years  ago,  is  one  of  unceasing  toil,  of  crowding  and 
jostling,  where  the  weaker  fall  unpitied  by  the  way, 
— **of  starvation  from  hunger  and  cold,  of  robbery 
utterly  shameless  and  murder  utterly  cruel." 

Passing  from  plant  life  to  bird  life,  the  same 
author  remarks  that  when  we  think  of  the  hawk's 
talons  buried  in  the  breast  of  the  wren,  while  the 
relentless  beak  tears  the  little  wings  from  the  quiver- 
ing, bleeding  body,  our  mood  toward  Nature  is 
changed,  and  we  feel  like  recoiling  from  a  world  in 
which  such  black  injustice,  such  savage  disregard 
for  others,  is  part  of  the  general  scheme.  **But," 
he  continues,  *'as  we  look  still  further  into  the  mat- 
ter, we  find  that  this  hideous  hatred  and  strife  fur- 
nish the  indispensable  conditions  for  the  evolution 
of  higher  and  higher  types  of  life.  Increase  in  rich- 
ness, variety,  complexity  of  life  is  gained  only  by  the 
selection  of  variations  above  or  beyond  a  certain 
mean,  and  the  prompt  execution  of  a  death  sentence 
upon  all  the  rest. — ^At  all  events,  whenever  the  type 
is  raised,  it  is  through  survival  of  the  fittest,  imply- 
ing the  destruction  of  all  save  the  fittest."  ^ 

Any  well  informed  contemporary  biologist  knows 
that  this  picture  is  grossly  overdrawn,  or,  as  might 
also  be  said,  underdrawn,  because  it  tells  only  half  of 
the  truth.  It  affords  an  apt  illustration  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  doctrine  of  struggle  and  survival, 

6  J.  Fiske,  Through  Nature  to  God:  Boston,  1900;  pp.  63-67 
(Italics,  the  present  writer's). 


MALTHUS  AND  DAEWIN  109 

appropriated  by  way  of  Malthus  from  the  most  dis- 
tressing social  conditions  modern  England  ever  ex- 
perienced, has  overcolored  the  whole  biological 
theory.  Unfortunately,  this  exaggerated  scientific 
conception,  gripping  the  imagination  of  mankind  as 
the  final  and  complete  expression  of  a  natural  and 
universal  law,  has  reacted,  in  turn,  by  the  sanction  of 
accepted  analogy,  toward  the  perpetuation  of  those 
social  conditions  by  which  it  was  originally  occa- 
sioned; '^  and  we  hear  of  a  young  American  *' captain 
of  industry"  justifying  industrial  monopoly  by  tri- 
umphantly pointing  to  the  ** American  Beauty"  rose, 
to  produce  one  of  which  ninety-nine  roses  were  law- 
fully nipped  in  the  bud ! 

Biology  has  proceeded,  since  the  days  of  Malthus 
and  Darwin,  to  a  closer  and  more  truthful  intimacy 
with  the  secrets  of  nature.  It  has  now  learned  more 
of  the  comprehensive  system  of  principles  that 
govern  the  kingdom  of  life,  including  subordination 
and  sacrifice.  Who  knows  but  that  it  may  requite 
sociology  for  the  suggestion  of  one  law  by  the  sup- 
plementary gift  of  another?  Science  may  yet  mate- 
rialize the  vision  of  Carlyle,  and  "every  naked  back 
of  man  be  clothed, "  as  he  would  phrase  it,  through  a 
deeper  consideration  of  the  lilies.  To  this  sug- 
gestive interaction  of  biology  and  social  theory  we 
may  perhaps  revert  in  the  closing  chapter  of  this 
volume. 

7  "Darwin's  demonstration  of  evolution  by  means  of  the  struggle 
for  existence  in  the  natural  world  was  used  to  support  the  assump- 
tion that  a  similar  struggle  among  civilized  men  was  natural  and 
therefore  inevitable;  and  that  all  attempts  to  interfere  with  the 
conflict  between  the  weak  and  the  strong,  the  scrupulous  and  the 
unscrupulous,  were  foredoomed  to  disastrous  failure," — Pollard's 
History  of  England,  as  cited,  p.  233. 


BOOK  m 

COTTON  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY: 
SECTIONAL  EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  22 

COLUMBUS  AND   CORTES 

Columbus,  looking  for  India,  found  America ;  and 
the  very  first  objects  of  native  art  that  met  his  atten- 
tion were  made  out  of  cotton.  Every  hammock 
swinging  in  a  summer  breeze  bears  witness  to  this, 
being  the  survival  of  an  aboriginal  invention  which 
the  great  explorer  found  the  Cubans  using  instead 
of  beds, — cotton  nets  which  they  hung  between  trees 
and  called  hamacas,  whence  our  English  word.  The 
people  of  the  Bahamas  brought  gifts  of  cotton  yarn 
in  exchange  for  Castilian  trinkets.  Cuban  women 
clothed  themselves  in  cotton  dresses.  In  a  single 
house  there  were  approximately  12,000  pounds  of 
yarn  on  spindles,  and  there  were  also  looms.  In 
Cuba  and  Haiti  and  Guadaloupe  even  the  idols  were 
made  of  cotton,  reminding  one  of  the  sacred  associa- 
tions of  this  plant  among  the  ancient  Hindus.  When 
Fernando  Magellan  visited  Brazil  in  1520  he  found 
Brazilians  using  mattresses  stuffed  with  cotton  lint.^ 
In  fact,  the  extensive  Spanish  explorations  proved 
that  the  cultivation  and  manufacture  of  cotton  had 
evolved  independently  on  the  South  American  con- 
tinent, just  as  in  India,  reaching  a  notably  high  de- 
velopment in  extremely  remote  times  among  the 
lordly  peoples  of  Mexico. 

When  Cortes  entered  the  city  of  Cholula  in  1519  he 

1  Henry  Lee,  as  cited,  p.  84. 

113 


114        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

was  especially  struck  with  the  costumes  of  the  higher 
classes,  who  wore  fine  embroidered  cotton  mantles, 
similar  to  the  Moorish  cloak  in  both  cloth  and  pat- 
tern.^ Marching  on  to  the  great  and  romantic  capi- 
tal city,  which  stood  buttressed  and  insulated  in  the 
middle  of  a  huge  salt  lake,  his  soldiers  discovered  an 
imposing  urban  civilization  that  staggered  them,  as 
though  they  had  suddenly  stepped  back  across  the 
centuries  to  Nineveh  or  Thebes. 

From  the  lofty  central  temple,  Montezuma,  sacri- 
ficing to  his  gods,  sent  ofiicers  one  day  to  conduct 
some  of  the  leading  Spaniards  into  his  presence. 
Cortes  wrote  of  this  edifice  as  having  a  grandeur 
"which  no  human  tongue  can  describe.'*  Bernal 
Diaz,  who  was  present,  vividly  depicts  the  scene. 
Montezuma,  he  says,  took  Cortes  by  the  hand,  and 
from  the  exalted  summit  of  ''this  infernal  temple" 
pointed  out  to  him  the  different  parts  of  the  city,  and 
its  vicinity,  all  of  which  were  commanded  from  that 
place.  ''Here  we  had  a  clear  prospect  of  the  three 
causeways  by  which  Mexico  communicated  with  the 
land,  and  of  the  aqueduct  of  Chapultepekue,  which 
supplied  the  city  with  the  benefit  of  water.  We  were 
struck  with  the  numbers  of  canoes,  passing  to  and 
from  the  main  land,  loaded  with  provisions  and  mer- 
chandise, and  we  could  now  perceive  that  in  this  great 
city,  and  all  the  others  of  that  neighborhood  which 
were  built  in  the  water,  the  houses  stood  separate 
from  each  other,  communicating  only  by  small  draw- 
bridges, and  by  boats,  and  that  they  were  built  with 
terraced  tops.  The  noise  and  bustle  of  the  market- 
place below  us  could  be  heard  almost  a  league  off, 
and  those  who  had  been  at  Rome  and  Constanti- 

2W.  H.  Prescott,  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico:  New  York, 
1844;  vol.  ii,  p.  13. 


COLUMBUS  AND  CORTES  115 

nople  said,  that  for  convenience,  regularity,  and 
population,  they  had  never  seen  the  like."  ^ 

On  their  way  to  this  royal  reception,  the  Spaniards 
were  particularly  impressed  with  the  elegant  garb 
of  their  generous  hosts.  **The  tilmatli,  or  cloak, 
thrown  over  the  shoulders  and  tied  round  the  neck, 
made  of  cotton  of  different  degrees  of  fineness,  ac- 
cording to  the  condition  of  the  wearer,  and  the  ample 
sash  around  the  loins,  were  often  wrought  in  rich 
and  elegant  figures,  and  edged  with  a  deep  fringe 
or  tassel."  The  women  wore  skirts  with  highly 
ornamented  borders,  and  over  these,  sometimes, 
loosely  flowing  robes,  made  of  cotton,  which  was 
often  of  a  delicate  texture,  richly  dyed  and  embroid- 
ered. 

Montezuma  himself  wore  the  girdle  and  the  ample 
square  cloak  of  his  nation,  made  of  the  finest  cotton, 
with  the  embroidered  ends  gathered  in  a  knot  around 
his  neck.  Whenever  he  deigned  to  walk  his  attend- 
ants strewed  the  ground  with  cotton  tapestry,  to  pre- 
vent the  imperial  foot  from  the  contamination  of 
soil.*  Diaz  notes  that  **he  had  also  much  defensive 
armor  of  quilted  cotton  ornamented  with  feathers 
in  different  devices."  Chief  among  the  presents 
that  he  bestowed  on  his  visitors  were  cotton  dresses, 
enough  to  supply  every  man  with  a  suit.^ 

In  the  market  could  be  seen  cotton  piled  up  in 
bales,  or  made  into  quilted  doublets  and  dresses, 
with  such  articles  for  domestic  use  as  tapestry,  cur- 
tains, coverlets,  and  hoods.  Cortes,  imitating  the 
Mexicans,  protected  his  own  soldiers  from  hostile  ar- 

3  Bernal  Diaz  del  Castillo,  The  True  History  of  the  Conquest  of 
Mexico.  Written  in  the  year  1568;  Maurice  Keating,  Translator: 
London,  1800;  pp.  145-146. 

4  Prescott,  as  cited,  p.  73. 
sPrescott,  as  cited,  p.  83. 


116        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

rows  by  quilting  their  jackets  with  lint.  He  sent 
home  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V  cotton  mantles, 
some  all  white,  others  mixed  with  white  and  black, 
or  red,  green,  yellow,  and  blue ;  waistcoats,  handker- 
chiefs, counterpanes,  tapestries,  and  carpets  of  cot- 
ton, in  which  the  colors  of  the  cotton  were  extremely 
fine.  From  its  fibers  the  Mexicans  had  learned  to 
manufacture  paper,  and  even  to  make  up  small  cloths 
of  it  as  a  species  of  money.  Explorers  later  than 
Cortes  found  the  plant  growing  as  far  North  as  the 
country  bordering  the  *'Mishesepe"  and  its  tribu- 
taries; de  Vica,  in  1536,  discovering  it  in  the  terri- 
tory now  comprised  within  the  States  of  Louisiana 
and  Texas.^ 

The  rich  civilization  of  the  Peruvian  Incas  also  in- 
cluded a  high  development  of  the  culture  and  manu- 
facture of  cotton.'^  Acquainted  with  the  use  of 
guano,  these  ancient  farmers  would  excavate  great 
tracts  in  the  arid  areas,  deep  enough  to  secure  mois- 
ture, and  then  heavily  fertilize  their  reclaimed 
sunken  gardens,  succeeding  to  such  a  degree  in  the 
scientific  culture  of  the  cotton  plant  that  the  Peru- 
vian fiber  is  to  this  day  exceeded  in  length  only 
by  Egyptian  and  sea-island  products,  while  for 
strength  and  length  of  fiber  combined  it  cannot  be 
surpassed.  Although,  unlike  the  Mexicans,  who  used 
cotton  exclusively,  these  Peruvians  utilized  the  wool 
of  alpacas,  llamas,  sheep,  and  other  animals  in  the 
manufacture  of  clothing,  they  also  produced  colored 
cotton  cloths  worked  in  complicated  and  elegant  pat- 
terns, Pizarro  reporting  that  from  time  immemorial 

«M.  B.  Hammond,  The  Cotton  Industry:     New  York,  1897;  p.  4. 

1  Clements  R.  Markham  on  "The  Inca  Civilization  in  Peru"  in 
J.  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America:  Boston, 
1889;  vol.  i,  pt.  ii,  ch.  iv. 


COLUMBUS  AND  COETES  117 

the  dress  of  the  Inca  had  always  been  woven  of  cot- 
ton by  the  ** virgins  of  the  sun." 

Even  before  the  times  of  the  Incas,  tribes  of 
**Chimu,"  inhabiting  parts  of  the  coast  of  Pern, 
erected  temples  and  tombs  and  palaces,  with  fur- 
naces for  the  smelting  of  metals,  gateways  con- 
structed of  enormous  masses  of  stone,  and  aqueducts 
extending  for  hundreds  of  miles  across  the  moun- 
tains and  rivers.  From  their  habit  of  interring  with 
mummies  all  of  the  articles  of  ordinary  daily  use,  it 
is  possible  to  learn  much  of  their  customs ;  and  nu- 
merous cotton  garments  have  from  time  to  time  been 
exhumed,  especially  in  the  neighborhood  of  An- 
con,  showing  a  highly  advanced  knowledge  of  weav- 
ing.^ Even  spindles,  with  other  implements  used  in 
spinning  and  sewing,  have  been  recovered  from  the 
tombs  of  the  Chimu,  indicating,  in  the  judgment  of 
Mr.  Henry  Lee,  among  others,  that  the  cultivation 
and  manufacture  of  cotton  in  the  so-called  **New 
World"  was  **at  least  coeval  with  the  similar  use  of 
it  in  India." 

8  The  same,  notes. 


CHAPTER  23 

COLONIAL!  LIFE 

Exactly  three  hundred  years,  however,  elapsed 
between  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus  and 
the  appearance  of  the  cotton  plant  as  an  important 
item  in  North  American  life.  It  is  only  a  little  more 
than  a  century  since  cotton  leaped  suddenly  into  the 
national  foreground,  from  which  it  has  never  re- 
ceded. It  came  as  though  responsive  to  roaring 
British  mills,  to  appease  the  fierce  raiment  hunger 
of  England ;  it  came  as  though  magically  summoned 
by  the  urgent  genie  of  the  Nick  of  Time;  but  no 
prophet,  of  even  the  most  venturous  imagination, 
could  have  foreseen  the  effect  of  this  sorcerous  plant 
on  the  woof  of  the  national  history,  wherein  it  has 
woven  a  pattern  so  persistent  and  far-reaching  and 
strange  as  to  suggest  the  tampering  hand  of  Pallas 
herself  at  the  looms.* 

In  colonial  times  spinning  and  weaving  figured  al- 
ways in  the  foreground  of  any  picture  of  American 
domestic  life,  Priscilla  being  none  the  less  attractive 
to  the  John  Aldens  of  her  day  by  reason  of  her  use 
of  the  wheel,  to  excel  in  which  was  the  pride  of  every 
lass  and  matron.  The  ** spinning  bee"  became  a 
popular  social  function,  celebrated  sometimes  in'  the 
town  hall,  and  again  in  the  village  manse ;  the  women 
bringing  with  pride  their  wheels  and  flax  for  the 
contest,  while  cake  and  wine  and  tea  were  generously 

1  See  Appendix  B. 

J18 


COLONIAL  LIFE  119 

supplied  by  the  gallant  gentlemen  who  danced  at- 
tendance on  them.2 

Flax  mounted,  in  fact,  to  the  dignity  of  a  con- 
siderable item  of  export,  so  that  Benjamin  Franklin 
could  testify  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1766  that  more  than  ten  thousand  hogs- 
heads of  flax-seed  were  annually  exported  from 
Philadelphia  to  Ireland,  with  probably  an  equal  ship- 
ment from  New  York. 

His  questioners,  who  were  considering  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  desired  to  ascertain  whether  the 
colonists  could  really  clothe  themselves  without  aid 
from  England.  Franklin,  replying,  alluded  not  only 
to  the  increasing  manufacture  of  wool,  in  addition  to 
linen,  but  said  of  the  people  in  the  populous  State 
of  Virginia  that  ''their  winters  are  short,  and  not 
very  severe;  and  they  can  very  well  clothe  them- 
selves with  linen  and  cotton  of  their  own  raising  for 
the  rest  of  the  year. ' ' 

The  concluding  questions  and  answers  of  this  re- 
markable tourney  of  wit  throw  a  vivid  side-light  on 
the  independent  temper  of  the  times. 

"What  used  to  be  the  pride  of  the  Americans?" 
— Franklin  was  questioned. 

"To  indulge  in  the  fashions  and  manufactures  of 
Great  Britain,"  he  answered. 

"What  is  now  their  pride?"  he  was  then  asked. 

*  *  To  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again,  till  they  can 
make  new  ones,"  he  replied.^ 

The  Virginia  planter,  George  Washington,  has  left 
documents  which  illustrate  these  interesting  opinions 
of  Franklin.    The  records  of  his  weaving  establish- 

2  J.  B.  McMaster,  History  of  the  People  of  the  U.  S. :  New  York, 
1892;   vol.  i,  p.  62. 

3  J.  N.  Lamed,  History  for  Ready  Eeference,  U.  S.,  1766:  Bpring- 
field,  1895;  vol.  V,  p.  3192  ff. 


120        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

ment  for  1767,  the  year  after  Franklin's  examina- 
tion, show  that  he  manufactured  clothing-goods  for 
twenty-eight  different  persons  besides  himself  and 
Mrs.  Washington,  making  a  total  of  1,556  yards,  of 
which  about  three  hundred  yards  were  of  cotton,  in- 
cluding ''cotton  striped,  cotton-plain,  cotton  filled, 
cotton-birdeye,  cotton  Jumpstripe,  and  Cotton-India 
dimity;**  while  his  summary  of  the  business  for 
1768  *  shows  that  he  spun  and  wove  for  his  own  use 
(including  his  plantation)  815%  yards  of  "linnen," 
35514  yards  of  woollen,  144^^  yards  of  linsey,  and 
forty  yards  of  cotton — thus  demonstrating  his  com- 
plete independence  of  England  in  the  matter  of  cloth- 
ing. 

It  is  amusing  nowadays  to  recall  the  attitude  of 
these  fathers  of  the  Republic  toward  manufacture. 
Franklin,  in  a  pamphlet  written  in  1760,  said  that 
"manufactures  are  founded  in  poverty. — No  man 
who  can  have  a  piece  of  land  of  his  own  sufficient  by 
his  labor  to  subsist  his  family  in  plenty,  is  poor 
enough  to  be  a  manufacturer  and  work  for  a 
master.'* 

The  very  word,  as  this  last  sentence  shows,  had  a 
different  connotation  from  that  of  its  present  usage, 
due  to  the  fact  that  manufacture  was  still  isolated 
and  domestic,  the  factory  system  being  as  yet  unde- 
veloped. 

Even  Washington  felt  it  necessary  to  apologize  for 
his  partiality  to  manufacture,  saying  in  a  letter  to 
Lafayette  in  1789:  **  Though  I  would  not  force  the 
introduction  of  manufactures  by  extravagant  en- 
couragements, and  to  the  prejudice  of  agriculture, 
yet  I  conceive  much  might  be  done  in  the  way  by 

4U.  B.  Phillips,  A  Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial 
Society:     Cleveland,  1910,  vol.  ii,  p.  319  flf. 


COLONIAL  LIFE  121 

women,  children,  and  others,  without  taking  one 
really  necessary  hand  from  tilling  the  earth."  ^ 

In  another  letter  written  in  the  same  year  he  re- 
veals again  the  patriotic  motives  that  enlisted  his 
interest  in  home  industry  when  he  says:  *'No 
diminution  in  agriculture  has  taken  place  at  the  time 
when  greater  and  more  substantial  improvements  in 
manufactures  were  making  than  were  ever  before 
known  in  America. — I  hope  it  will  not  be  a  great 
while  before  it  will  be  unfashionable  for  a  gentleman 
to  appear  in  any  other  dress  (except  homespun). 
Indeed,  we  have  already  been  too  long  subject  to 
British  prejudices.  I  use  no  porter  or  cheese  in  my 
family,  but  such  as  is  made  in  America.'*  ^ 

5  0.  L.  Elliott,  The  Tariff  Controversy  in  the  U.  S.:     Palo  Alto, 
1892;  p.  40,  note. 
«  Elliott,  as  cited,  pp.  62-63. 


CHAPTEE  24 

EAELY   MANUFACTTJBB 

To  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  was  born  on  a  West 
Indian  cotton  plantation,  Americans  owe  the  first 
pronounced  argument  for  manufactures;  his  cele- 
brated report  to  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
1791  beginning  with  the  words:  *'The  expediency 
of  encouraging  manufactures  in  the  United  States, 
which  was  not  long  since  deemed  very  questionable, 
appears  at  this  time  to  be  pretty  generally  admit- 
ted." Tench  Coxe  shares  with  Hamilton  the  honor 
of  fathering  the  early  interest  in  manufacturing 
progress,  his  position  as  assistant  secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  at  Philadelphia,  enabling  him  to  give  ef- 
fective support  to  the  policies  of  his  brilliant  asso- 
ciate, while  of  his  own  initiative  he  had  already  or- 
ganized the  **  United  Company  of  Philadelphia  for 
Promoting  American  Manufactures. ' ' 

This  company  secured  and  operated  the  first  spin- 
ning-jenny seen  in  America,  which  was  exhibited  in 
Philadelphia  in  1775,  having  been  constructed  ac- 
cording to  the  Hargreaves  pattern  by  Christopher 
TuUy.  Coxe's  company  for  a  time  employed  four 
hundred  women  in  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  cot- 
ton, but  the  business  subsequently  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Samuel  Wetherell,  who  used  it  for  the  more 
lucrative  manufacture  of  wool.^ 

1  J.  L.  Bishop,  A  History  of  American  Manufactures  from  1608 
to  1860:     Philadelphia,  1861;  toL  i,  pp.  383-410. 

122 


EARLY  MANUFACTUEE  123 

Practically  all  of  the  cotton  used  in  the  United 
States  prior  to  this  period  was  imported  from  the 
West  Indies.  It  had  found  its  way  to  New  England 
in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
earhest  mention  of  ship  building  in  Connecticut  is 
connected  with  it ;  for  the  Colonial  Records  show  that 
in  1640  the  General  Court  declared:  *'It  is  thought 
necessary  for  the  comfortable  support  of  these  plan- 
tations, that  a  trade  in  cotton  wooll  be  sett  uppon 
and  attempted,  and  for  the  furthering  thereof  it  hath 
pleased  the  Governor  that  now  is  to  undertake  the 
finishing  and  setting  forth  a  vessel  with  convenient 
speed  to  those  parts  where  the  said  comodity  is  to 
be  had,  if  it  be  phesable."  ^  John  Winthrop  said  of 
his  neighbors  in  1643,  **They  are  setting  on  the 
manufacture  of  linen  and  cotton  cloth'*;  the  women 
who  delighted  in  flax  finding  that  the  same  simple 
implements  availed  for  the  silky  white  fiber  from 
the  Indies.  Weeden  shows  that  the  Connecticut 
people,  moreover,  took  a  leaf  from  the  annals  of 
Cortes,  and,  having  learned  in  the  Pequot  War  what 
Indian  arrows  could  do,  armored  their  pioneer  sol- 
diers in  cotton-quilted  corselets.  Squaws  were  in- 
structed in  the  new  manufacture,  the  school  at  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard  providing  **wheele  cards  and  cotton 
woole  to  Imploy  the  Indian  weemen"  so  early  as 
1661.3 

Both  Coxe  and  Hamilton  not  only  held  the  opinion 
that  cotton  might  be  cultivated  as  a  profitable  com- 
mercial crop  on  American  soil,  but  did  everything  in 
their  power  to  promote  its  extensive  introduction. 
It  had  been  planted  in  Virginia  in  the  first  year  of 

2  Cited  by  Bishop,  1,  pp.  49,  300. 

SW.  B.  Weeden,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England, 
1620-1789:     Boston,  1890;  vol.  i,  p.  201. 


124        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

settlement  (1607),*  and  in  1621  the  ''plentiful  com- 
ing up"  of  seeds  sown  as  an  experiment  became  a 
subject  of  interest  on  both  sides  of  the  water. 

Until  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  cotton 
seems  to  have  been  planted  in  very  small  quantities, 
chiefly  as  a  garden  plant,  for  the  sake  of  its  delicate 
blossoms  and  the  oddity  of  its  beautiful  fiber.  But 
early  in  that  century  enough  was  raised  in  North 
Carolina  to  furnish  one-fifth  of  the  people  with 
clothing,^  and  there  are  records  of  its  sporadic  culti- 
vation for  domestic  use  all  through  the  century,  one 
South  Carolina  planter  devoting  as  much  as  thirty 
acres  to  this  crop  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary "War.^ 

The  trouble  with  England  quickened  the  popular 
interest  in  its  possibilities ;  in  1775  the  legislative  as- 
semblies of  both  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  ex- 
horted the  people  to  cultivate  it;  but  on  the  other 
hand  Swiss  and  German  colonists  in  Georgia  were 
warned  by  their  trustees  at  home  to  desist  from  ex- 
perimentation with  cotton,  as  this  might  give  um- 
brage to  England.'^ 

After  the  achievement  of  independence  the  in- 
dustry made  such  headway  that  Jefferson  wrote,  in 
1786:  *'The  four  southernmost  States  mal^e  a 
great  deal  of  cotton.  The  poor  are  almost  entirely 
clothed  in  it  in  winter  and  summer.  In  winter  they 
wear  shirts  of  it  and  outer  clothing  of  cotton  and 
wool  mixed.    In  summer  their  shirts  are  linen,  but 

*  British  State  Papers,  Colonial,  vol.  i,  15,  i ;  Winder  Papers, 
vol.  i,  pp.  3-4,  cited  by  P.  A.  Bruce  in  Economic  History  of  Va.  in 
the  17th  Century:     New  York,  1907;  vol.  i,  p.  194,  note. 

8  Bulletin  No.  33,  as  cited,  p.  32. 

6  W.  B.  Seabrook,  Memoir  on  the  Origin,  Cultivation,  and  Uses  of 
Cotton:     Charleston,  1844;  p.  9. 

7  M.  B.  Hammond,  as  cited,  p.  7. 


EARLY  MANUFACTUEE  125 

the  outer  clothing  cotton.  The  dress  of  the  women 
is  ahnost  entirely  of  cotton  manufactured  by  them- 
selves, except  the  richer  class,  and  even  many  of 
these  wear  a  good  deal  of  home  spun  cotton.  It  is 
as  well  manufactured  as  the  calicoes  of  Europe. 
Those  four  States  furnish  a  great  deal  of  cotton  to 
the  States  north  of  them,  who  cannot  make  as  being 
too  cold."^ 

In  the  same  year  Madison  said  to  Tench  Coxe  at 
the  Annapolis  Convention  that  ''there  was  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  United  States  would  one 
day  become  a  great  cotton-producing  country";^ 
while  Hamilton  had  already  taken  the  position  that 
"several  of  the  Southern  colonies"  might  some  day 
** clothe  the  whole  continent."  ^^ 

The  industry  stumbled,  however,  and  made  but 
slow  progress  at  best,  as  the  upland  cotton  plant  was 
of  a  short-staple  variety,  characterized  by  the  ex- 
treme stubbornness  with  which  the  lint  adheres  to 
its  seed,  so  that  in  those  times  before  the  invention 
of  the  Whitney  gin  it  took  a  full  day's  work  to  sepa- 
rate a  single  pound  of  the  fiber  for  carding. 

Very  different,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  tract- 
ability  of  the  long-staple  imported  variety,  its  lint 
being  far  less  tenacious,  so  that  the  simple  roller  gin 
called  the  *'churka,"  introduced  from  India,  served 
its  early  purpose  fairly  well;  while  the  quaint 
clumsy  "bow,"  described  on  page  19,  was  also  bor- 
rowed from  India,  and  made  to  do  service  in  cleans- 
ing. 

When,  finally,  some  of  the  Southern  planters  had 

8  Letter  to  Brissot  de  Warville,  cited  by  M.  B.  Hammond,  p.  13. 
»  Bishop,  i,  355. 

10  In  1774  or  '75,  according  to  Carroll  D.  Wright,  The  Indus- 
trial Evolution  of  the  U.  S.:     New  York,  1902;  p.  53. 


126        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

undertaken  the  domestic  production  of  this  "sea- 
island"  cotton  (beginning  in  1786),^^  the  first  cotton 
crops  of  noteworthy  proportions  appeared  in  the 
United  States,  reaching  in  three  years  an  estimated 
output  of  a  million  pounds  of  lint,  and  at  the  end  of 
five  years,  two  millions.  But  the  sea-island  variety 
soon  attained  its  maximum  production,  as  it  refused 
to  grow  outside  of  a  narrowly  circumscribed  area, — 
being  still  confined  to  Southern  sea-islands  and  a 
thin  strip  of  land  along  the  adjoining  coast. 

11  Bishop,  i,  356. 


CHAPTER  25 

THE  DIS-TJNITED  STATES 

We  have  now  reached  the  most  important  year  in 
the  history  of  the  cotton  plant  in  America,  if  not  in 
the  world,  the  year  1793 ;  when,  by  the  ingenuity  of 
a  Yankee  schoolmaster  sojourning  in  Georgia,  the 
stubborn  and  almost  worthless  short-staple  fiber, 
which  abounded  in  the  uplands,  was  lifted  from  a 
negligible  position  in  the  domestic  life  of  the  South 
to  become  with  astonishing  suddenness  the  most  im- 
portant of  national  exports,  and  the  chief  source  of 
supply  for  the  ravenous  markets  of  England,  lead- 
ing Macaulay  to  say:  **What  Peter  the  Great  did 
to  make  Russia  dominant,  Eli  Whitney's  invention 
of  the  cotton  gin  has  more  than  equaled  in  its  re- 
lation to  the  power  and  progress  of  the  United 
States."  ^  But  as  we  are  considering  the  broad  in- 
fluence of  cotton,  the  romantic  and  stormy  career  of 
Whitney  may  be  deferred  to  a  subsequent  chapter, 
giving  us  time  to  indicate  the  course  of  a  political 
revolution  in  which  the  skeins  of  this  plant  became 
involved  with  consequences  quite  as  important,  to 
say  the  least,  as  those  of  the  Industrial  Revolution 
in  England.  For  there  can  be  no  question  that  the 
startling  development  of  a  novel  and  weighty  eco- 
nomic factor  had  much  to  do  with  the  new  aline- 
ment  that  gradually  arrayed  the  segregated  States 

iC.  W.  Burkett  and  C.  H.  Poe  in  Cotton:  New  York,  1906;  p. 
217. 

127 


128        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

into  two  clearly  defined  sections,  with  clashing  con- 
victions on  vital  matters  of  policy;  how  much,  the 
reader  will  judge  for  himself.  The  facts  will  simply 
be  marshaled  so  as  to  bear  their  own  testimony. 

So  acute  was  the  factional  antagonism  among  the 
United  States  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
as  to  lead  John  Fiske  to  assert  that  the  period  of  five 
years  following  the  peace  of  1783,  and  embracing 
the  Constitutional  Convention,  was  the  gravest  crisis 
in  all  the  history  of  the  American  people.  "The 
War  of  Secession  was  a  terrible  ordeal  to  pass 
through,**  he  says;  **but  when  one  tries  to  picture 
what  might  have  happened  in  this  fair  land  without 
the  work  of  the  Federal  Convention,  the  imagina- 
tion stands  aghast. '  *  ^  Certainly  it  cannot  be  too 
strongly  insisted  that  the  winning  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War  did  not  establish  the  liberties  of  the  Ameri- 
can people;  it  merely  cleared  the  path  for  their 
establishment.  There  was  no  American  people  ex- 
cept as  united  in  a  temporary  warfare  against  a  com- 
mon enemy ;  this  struggle  ended,  the  colonies  drifted 
back  into  factional  bickerings  and  petty  internecine 
warfare  so  acute  and  incessant  that  anarchy  seemed 
the  only  logical  outcome, — George  III  and  Lord 
North  and  Thurlow  confidently  awaiting  the  issue. 
Even  friendly  Englishmen  predicted  that  Americans 
must  remain  a  disunited  people  until  the  end  of  time, 
and  there  were  not  wanting  American  citizens  who 
saw  the  only  hope  of  safety  in  a  king.^  The  Con- 
federation was  nothing  but  a  mere  "league  of  friend- 

8  J.  Fiake,  The  Critical  Period  of  American  History,  1783-1789: 
Boston,  1892;  p.  262;   see  also  pp.  v.  and  55. 

3  R.  E.  Thompson,  The  Hand  of  God  in  American  History:  New 
York,  1902;  pp.  64-67.  See  also  Allen  Johnson,  in  Union  and 
Democracy:     Boston,  1915;  p.  24. 


THE  DIS-UNITED  STATES  129 

ship,"  Congress  lacking  power  to  enforce  its  laws, 
as  to  impose  taxes,  and  the  bankrupt  government 
being  forced  time  and  again  to  draw  upon  its  foreign 
ministers  for  funds,  discounting  the  drafts  for  cash, 
when  there  was  not  the  slightest  ground  for  sup- 
posing that  the  minister  would  have  any  funds. 
**He  must  go  and  beg  the  money.  That  was  part 
of  his  duty  as  envoy, — to  solicit  loans  without  se- 
curity for  a  government  that  could  not  raise  enough 
money  by  taxation  to  defray  its  current  expenses. ' '  * 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  example  of  American 
powerlessness,  resulting  from  the  universal  faction- 
alism, is  furnished  by  the  plight  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  when,  on  one  occasion  during  the  seven 
years  of  its  peripatetic  history,  it  was  actually 
chased  from  its  quarters  in  Philadelphia  by  a  hand- 
ful of  drunken  soldiers  demanding  their  pay,  and 
forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  college  buildings  at 
Princeton.  Congress  skipped  about  from  Philadel- 
phia to  Princeton,  to  Annapolis,  to  Trenton,  to  New 
York,  until  it  became  a  common  butt  of  ridicule ;  one 
editor,  for  example,  writing  in  irony:  ** Verily  the 
Lord  shall  make  this  government  like  unto  a  wheel, 
and  keep  it  rolling  back  and  forth  betwixt  Dan  and 
Beer-sheba,  and  grant  it  no  rest  this  side  of  Jor- 
dan."'* 

The  point  with  which  we  are  concerned  at  the  mo- 
ment is  this:  that  the  separatism  responsible  for 
such  an  unhappy  condition  was  universal,  section- 
alism between  North  and  South  not  yet  having  crys- 
tallized, but  existing  only  as  a  dispassionate  geo- 
graphical fact  somewhat  accentuated  by  difference 
of  interests,  yet  scarcely  more  positive  than  the  an- 

^Fiske,  Critical  Period,  p.  156. 

B  Flake,  Critical  Period,  pp.  112-113,  271. 


130   COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

tagonism  between  Connecticut  and  New  York,  or 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  for  example.  The 
father  of  Gouverneur  Morris  expressly  stipulated 
in  his  will  that  his  son  should  not  be  educated  in 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  *'lest  he  should  imbibe 
in  his  youth  that  low  craft  and  cunning  so  incident 
to  the  people  of  that  country,  which  is  so  interwoven 
in  their  constitutions  that  all  their  art  cannot  dis- 
guise it  from  the  world,  though  many  of  them  under 
that  sanctified  garb  of  religion  have  endeavored 
to  impose  themselves  on  the  world  for  honest 
men."^ 

Fiske  gives  equally  laughable  illustrations  of  the 
reprisals  between  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Con- 
necticut. **The  city  of  New  York,  with  its  popula- 
tion of  30,000  souls,  had  long  been  supplied  with  fire- 
wood from  Connecticut,  and  with  butter  and  cheese, 
chickens  and  garden  vegetables,  from  the  thrifty 
farms  of  New  Jersey.  This  trade,  it  was  observed, 
carried  thousands  of  dollars  out  of  the  city  and  into 
the  pockets  of  detested  Yankees  and  despised  Jersey- 
men.  It  was  ruinous  to  domestic  industry,  said  the 
men  of  New  York.  Acts  were  accordingly  passed, 
obliging  every  Yankee  sloop  which  came  down 
through  Hell  Gate,  and  every  Jersey  market  boat 
which  was  rowed  across  from  Paulus  Hook  to  Cort- 
landt  Street,  to  pay  entrance  fees  and  obtain  clear- 
ances at  the  custom-house,  just  as  was  done  by  ships 
from  London  or  Hamburg;  and  not  a  cart-load  of 
Connecticut  firewood  could  be  delivered  at  the  back- 
door of  a  country-house  in  Beekman  Street  until  it 
should  have  paid  a  heavy  duty.  Great  and  just  was 
the  wrath  of  the  farmers  and  lumbermen.    The  New 

«J.  H.  Kirkland,  Higher  Education  in  the  U.  S.  A.:  Nashville, 
1913;  p.  6. 


THE  DIS-UNITED  STATES  131 

Jersey  legislature  made  up  its  mind  to  retaliate. 
The  city  of  New  York  had  lately  bought  a  small 
patch  of  ground  on  Sandy  Hook,  and  had  built  a 
lighthouse  there.  This  lighthouse  was  the  one  weak 
spot  in  the  heel  of  Achilles  where  a  hostile  arrow 
could  strike,  and  New  Jersey  gave  vent  to  her  in- 
dignation by  laying  a  tax  of  $1,800  a  year  on  it. 
Connecticut  was  equally  prompt.  At  a  great  meet- 
ing of  business  men,  held  at  New  London,  it  was 
unanimously  agreed  to  suspend  all  commercial  in- 
tercourse with  New  York.  Every  merchant  signed 
an  agreement,  under  penalty  of  $250  for  the  first 
offense,  not  to  send  any  goods  whatever  into  the 
hated  state  for  a  period  of  twelve  months.  * '  ^ 

*'A  selfish  habitude  of  thinking  and  reasoning,'* 
wrote  one  who  styled  himself  Yorick,  in  the  New 
York  Packet,  **  leads  us  into  a  fatal  error  the  mo- 
ment we  begin  to  talk  of  the  interests  of  America. 
The  fact  is,  by  the  interests  of  America  we  mean 
only  the  interests  of  that  State  to  which  property 
or  accident  has  attached  us."  "Of  the  affairs  of 
Georgia,"  Madison  confessed  in  1786,  **I  know  as 
little  as  those  of  Kamskatska."  Allen  Johnson 
says  that  in  order  to  find  a  historical  parallel  to  the 
annals  of  this  period,  one  must  go  back  to  the  bicker- 
ings and  jealousies  of  the  states  of  ancient  Greece.^ 

The  only  point  on  which  some  of  the  States 
seemed  to  agree  had  respect  to  their  independence 
of  any  actual  control  by  a  common  central  authority ; 
and  since  there  was  no  lodestone  to  hold  them  in 
place,  they  jostled  one  another  continually. 

'Critical  Period,  pp.   146-147. 

8  Union  and  Democracy:  Boston,  1915;  p.  8. 


CHAPTER  26 

STATES-EIGHTS  AND   THE   CONSTITUTION* 

States-rights  was  not  at  first  a  distinctive  South- 
ern doctrine,  as  it  afterwards  pointedly  became. 
On  the  contrary,  the  most  acute  opposition  to  the 
formation  of  the  Union  through  creation  of  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution  proceeded  from  Northern  States 
such  as  New  York  and  Rhode  Island,  while  certain 
States  of  the  South  took  a  prominent  part  in  bring- 
ing the  Constitutional  Convention  to  a  successful 
issue,  being  generous  not  only  in  the  initiation  and 
execution  of  policies,  but  also  in  the  surrender  of 
individual  rights.  Maryland  and  Virginia  success- 
fully paved  the  way  for  the  Convention.  Virginia, 
besides  furnishing  a  chairman  in  the  person  of  Wash- 
ington, a  powerful  foundation-builder  in  Edmund 
Randolph,  and  the  chief  craftsman  of  the  great  in- 
strument in  James  Madison,  had  already  distin- 
guished herself  by  her  cession  of  the  huge  North- 
western territory  to  the  Union,  while  North  Carolina 
in  1790  ceded  the  region  since  known  as  Tennessee ; 
and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  heavily  concerned 
in  the  slave  trade  though  they  were,  compromised 
with  New  England  States  in  the  Convention  on  a 
plan  for  the  prohibition  of  a  further  importation  of 

1  Chief  authorities :  J.  Fiske,  Critical  Period,  as  cited ;  James 
Madison,  Journal  of  the  Federal  Convention:  Chicago,  1898  (re- 
printed from  the  edition  of  1840) ;  A.  B.  Hart,  American  History 
Told  by  Contemporaries:     New  York,  1908;  yol.  iii, 

132 


STATES-EIGHTS  AND  CONSTITUTION     133 

slaves  after  the  year  1808,  thus  surmounting  the 
chief  obstacle  in  the  way  of  federal  union,  after 
which  progress  became  relatively  easy. 

On  the  other  hand,  several  of  the  Northern  States 
were  so  jealous  of  individual  rights  and  so  reluctant 
to  make  any  material  concessions  as  to  endanger  the 
formation  of  the  Constitution  time  and  again. 
Hamilton,  brilliant  and  zealous  as  he  was,  had  his 
vote  negatived  repeatedly  by  the  two  other  dele- 
gates from  New  York,  extreme  and  obstinate  Anti- 
Federalists,  who  finally  quit  the  Convention  and 
went  home  disgusted.  Ehode  Island  even  refused  to 
send  delegates. 

Other  of  the  Northern  States  of  course  labored 
with  conspicuous  zeal  and  ability  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  the  great  agreement,  notably  Pennsylvania, 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts;  but  the  point  is, 
that  radical  opposition  to  the  surrender  of  States- 
rights  was  at  this  time  found  in  the  North,  while 
most  of  the  Southern  States  persistently  and  pa- 
tiently labored  toward  the  construction  of  a  Federal 
Constitution  which  involved  a  surrender  of  States- 
rights. 

The  factional  dangers  of  the  times  are  amply  re- 
flected in  contemporary  documents.  Madison  feared 
the  ''partition  of  the  empire  into  rival  and  hostile 
confederacies."  Hamilton  gloomily  demanded,  in 
the  Federalist, — "What  indication  is  there  of  na- 
tional disorder,  poverty,  and  insignificance,  which 
does  not  form  a  part  of  the  dark  catalogue  of  our 
public  misfortunes  r*  The  aged  Franklin,  despond- 
ent that  so  little  progress  had  been  made  in  the  Con- 
vention after  weeks  of  wrangling,  proposed  as  a  last 
resort  that  prayer  be  offered  for  divine  interposition 
and  assistance,    Washington  declared,  with  great 


134        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

solemnity:  **It  is  too  probable  that  no  plan  we  pro- 
pose will  be  adopted.  Perhaps  another  dreadful 
conflict  is  to  be  sustained. ' '  Finally,  after  a  weary 
struggle  that  had  lasted  from  the  25th  of  May  until 
the  17th  of  September,  that  instrument  was  at  length 
complete  which  Gladstone  called  the  greatest  work 
ever  struck  off  at  any  one  time  by  the  mind  and  pur- 
pose of  man.  Great  it  most  certainly  is ;  but  its  real 
greatness  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  it  was  not 
struck  off  at  a  single  blow  by  the  unimpeded  genius 
of  calm  statesmanship;  it  was  built  up  from  the 
slow  accretions  of  a  widely  diversified  colonial  ex- 
perience, and  finally  beat  and  hammered  into  shape 
by  the  arms  of  rough  battling  giants,  in  the  heat  of 
fierce  factional  jealousies.  Franklin  voiced  the  feel- 
ing of  many  delegates  as  the  last  members  were  sign- 
ing, by  pointing  to  a  carved  and  gilded  figure  of  the 
sun  that  may  still  be  seen  on  the  back  of  Washing- 
ton's chair,  and  saying  to  those  around  him:  '*! 
have  often  and  often,  in  the  course  of  the  session  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  my  hopes  and  fears  as  to  its 
issue,  looked  at  that  behind  the  President,  without 
being  able  to  tell  whether  it  was  rising  or  setting; 
but  now  at  length,  I  have  the  happiness  to  know, 
that  it  is  a  rising,  and  not  a  setting  sun" — ^while 
Washington  sat  with  his  head  bowed  in  solemn  medi- 
tation. 

But,  for  all  its  vicissitudes,  the  Constitution  had 
only  been  launched  as  yet ;  it  had  now  to  weather  the 
storms  of  thirteen  conventions  before  it  could  be 
christened  as  the  true  ship  of  State  for  the  Union. 
This  ratification  struggle,  lasting  three  years,  proves 
conclusively  that  the  doctrine  of  States-rights  had 
not  yet  become  a  sectional  issue,  but  was  dispersed 
with   impartiality   among    the    dissident    common- 


STATES-EIGHTS  AND  CONSTITUTION     135 

wealths.  Delaware,  a  Southern  State,  was  the  first 
to  ratify,  and  by  a  unanimous  vote.  In  Pennsylvania 
the  contest  was  sharp,  violence  being  used  to  secure 
quorums,  while  pamphleteers  sneered  at  Franklin  as 
a  dotard  and  branded  Washington  as  a  fool.  Wash- 
ington credited  James  Wilson,  the  Scotchman, 
with  saving  the  Constitution.  He  carried  Pennsyl- 
vania by  stumping  the  State,  the  vote  at  length 
standing  46  to  23.  New  Jersey  and  Georgia  fol- 
lowed unanimously,  while  Connecticut  next  ratified 
by  128  to  40.  In  Massachusetts  the  devotion  to 
States-rights  caused  a  serious  struggle,  which  was 
not  ended  until  Washington  sent  to  Boston  the 
solemn  warning:  **The  Constitution  or  disunion 
are  before  us  to  choose  from" — accompanied  by  the 
politic  suggestion  that  *4f  the  Constitution  is  our 
choice,  a  constitutional  door  is  open  for  amend- 
ments." Hancock  and  Adams  thereupon  withdrew 
their  objections,  proposing  a  ratification  with  the 
accompanying  recommendation  that  the  instrument 
should  subsequently  be  amended  in  important  par- 
ticulars ;  but,  even  so,  their  motion  prevailed  by  the 
narrow  margin  of  187  to  168.  Maryland  was  the 
next  to  confirm,  63  to  12;  South  Carolina  followed 
with  a  vote  of  149  to  73,  and  New  Hampshire,  the 
ninth  State,  made  the  union  binding  by  a  vote  of  57 
to  46. 

Virginia,  the  most  populous  State,  had  divided  on 
the  Constitution  in  a  prolonged  debate,  the  opposi- 
tion being  led  by  such  unquestioned  patriots  as  Pat- 
rick Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  and  James  Monroe. 
Although  defended  by  Madison,  Randolph,  and  Mar- 
shall, the  Constitution  would  probably  never  have 
been  ratified  at  all  without  the  personal  influence  of 
Washington;  even  then,  the  vote  stood  89  to  79. 


136        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

But  New  York  offered  a  still  more  stubborn  resist- 
ance, which  never  yielded  at  all  until  news  arrived 
from  New  Hampshire  that  the  Union  had  at  length 
become  an  accomplished  fact,  so  that  New  York  had 
to  face  the  prospect  of  isolation  should  she  refuse  to 
sign.  Except  for  Hamilton  and  his  *' Federalist" 
the  decision  would  probably  have  been  adverse  in 
any  event,  ratification  being  at  length  secured  by  the 
bare  majority  of  three  votes,  30  against  27,  the  Con- 
stitution, besides  being  openly  burned  at  Albany,  re- 
ceiving fierce  denunciation  as  a  * '  triple-headed  mon- 
ster," "as  deep  and  wicked  a  conspiracy  as  ever  was 
invented  in  the  darkest  ages  against  the  liberties  of 
a  free  people."  It  was,  as  John  Adams  said,  ** ex- 
torted from  the  grinding  necessities  of  a  reluctant 
people." 

North  Carolina  stayed  out  of  the  Union  until 
November,  1789,  and  Ehode  Island  did  not  come  in 
until  June  of  1790.  The  doctrine  of  States-rights 
had  not  yet  begun  to  be  sectional.  It  was  impar- 
tially shared  by  the  North  and  South  alike,  with  the 
pressure  for  it  strongest  in  the  North.  We  shall 
see  that  cotton  localized  it  finally  in  the  South. 

Note.  It  would  hardly  be  Inaccurate  to  say  that  the  friends  of 
the  Constitution  would  have  been  found  between  the  coast  and  a 
line  fifty  miles  west  of  it.  West  of  the  latter  line  lay  the  opposi- 
tion. The  States  where  ratification  was  easy  were  mainly  com- 
mercial States.  Of  these,  New  Jersey  had  originally  objected  to 
the  Articles  of  Confederation  because  they  gave  no  protection  to 
commerce;  South  Carolina's  commerce  was  a  far  larger  part  of  her 
wealth  in  1788  than  at  any  time  since;  Georgia  was  further  influ- 
enced by  her  position  as  a  frontier  State,  exposed  to  the  powerful 
Southern  Indian  tribes,  and  anxious  for  protection  by  a  strong 
Federal  Grovernment;  and  Maryland  and  Connecticut,  having  large 
and  vague  claims  to  territory  in  the  Northwest,  had  solider  hopes 
of  justice  from  a  firm  Federal  Government  than  from  the  Con- 
federacy. 

In  the  agricultural  States  ratification  was  difiRcult.  Massachu- 
setts was  not  then,  as  now,  packed  with  manufactories.  Her 
strength  lay  in  agriculture,  and  her  farmer  delegates  .  .  .  held  their 


STATES-EIGHTS  AND  CONSTITUTION     137 

ground  obstinately. — Alexander   Johnston,   American   Political  His- 
tory, 1763-1876:     New  York,  1913;  p.  79. 

According  to  John  Adams,  the  Constitution  was  "the  work  of  the 
commercial  people  in  the  sea-port  towns,  of  the  planters  of  the  slave- 
holding  States,  of  the  oflScers  of  the  Revolutionary  army,  and  the  prop- 
erty-holders everywhere."  For  a  specific  treatment  of  this  subject, 
see  C.  A.  Beard,  An  Economic  Interpretation  of  the  Constitution: 
New  York,  1913. 


CHAPTER  27 

EAKLY   SLAVEEY 

South  Carolina's  able  representatives  in  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  had  argued  successfully  for 
the  recognition  and  protection  of  slaves,  for  eco- 
nomic reasons.  Having  regard  to  the  rice  and  in- 
digo crops,  General  Pinckney  declared  that  so  long 
as  there  remained  one  acre  of  swamp  land  uncleared 
in  his  native  State,  he  would  raise  his  voice  against 
unduly  restricting  slavery,  being  thoroughly  con- 
vinced that  "the  nature  of  our  climate,  and  the  flat, 
swampy  situation  of  our  country,  obliges  us  to  culti- 
vate our  lands  with  negroes ;  and  that  without  them 
South  Carolina  would  soon  be  a  desert  waste. '  *  ^ 
His  cousin  frankly  said  that  South  Carolina  could 
never  receive  the  plan  should  it  prohibit  the  slave 
trade;  but  added  significantly  that  "if  the  States 
be  all  left  at  liberty  on  this  subject.  South  Caro- 
lina may  perhaps,  by  degrees,  do  of  herself  what  is 
wished. '  *  ^ 

Cooperating,  however,  with  the  delegates  from 
Georgia,  and  effecting  a  compromise  with  New 
England,  Eutledge  and  the  Pinckneys  agreed  to  the 
prohibition  of  a  further  importation  of  slaves  after 
the  year  1808,  but  secured  a  slave  law,  in  addition 
to  a  "three-fifths  compromise," — which  provided 
that  in  counting  the  population  for  purposes  of  tax- 

1  Elliot's  Debates  (1876),  iv:  263,  cited  by  M.  B.  Hammond, 
p.  39. 

2  Madison's  Journal,  p.  678. 

138 


EARLY  SLAVERY  139 

ation,  or  to  determine  representation  in  Congress, 
five  slaves  should  be  reckoned  as  three  individuals. 
**I  will  confess,"  said  General  Pinckney,  ''that  I 
had  prejudices  against  the  Eastern  States  before  I 
came  here,  but  I  have  found  them  as  liberal  and 
candid  as  any  men  whatever. ' '  ^ 

But  Virginia  was  not  nearly  so  complaisant  as 
New  England  on  this  question  of  slavery.  Mason, 
in  opposing  the  ** bargain"  between  New  England 
and  the  far  South,  denounced  the  slave  trade  as  an 
** infernal  traffic,"  which  *' discourages  arts  and 
manufactures. — Every  master  of  slaves  is  born  a 
petty  tyrant,"  he  said.  ''They  bring  the  judgment 
of  Heaven  on  a  country.  As  nations  cannot  be  re- 
warded or  punished  in  the  next  world,  they  must  be 
in  this.  By  an  inevitable  chain  of  causes  and  ef- 
fects, Providence  punishes  national  sins  by  national 
calamities. ' '  * 

Columbus  himself  had  introduced  slavery  into 
America,  by  taking  some  of  the  Caribs  into  captivity 
and  sending  them  back  to  Spain,  afterwards  divid- 
ing the  entire  island  of  Hispaniola  into  "reparti- 
mientos"  for  the  purpose  of  exacting  tribute  in  the 
guise  of  goods  and  severe  personal  labor.''  From 
this  there  arose  one  of  the  most  cruel  and  destruc- 
tive systems  of  slavery  that  has  ever  been  known. 

But  it  was  Sir  John  Hawkins,  the  English  ex- 
plorer, who  introduced  African  slavery  into  His- 
paniola,— bringing  in  three  cargoes  of  negroes  be- 
tween 1562  and  1567,  having  founded  on  the  Guinea 
coast  a  stockade  where  human  chattels  could  be  col- 
lected and  held  the  year  round.    On  his  last  voyage 

sFiske's  Critical  Period,  p.  265. 
4  Critical  Period,  p.  264. 

BJ.  Fiske,  The  Discovery  of  America:  Boston,  1892;  vol.  ii, 
p.  432  fif. 


140        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

he  was  accompanied  by  young  Francis  Drake,  com- 
manding the  Judith.^  It  was  from  this  West 
India  traffic  in  negroes  that  slavery  first  spread  into 
South  CarolinaJ  But  it  had  appeared  in  New  York 
at  an  earlier  date,  under  the  Dutch ;  ^  and  was  intro- 
duced into  Virginia  in  1619.®  The  ''Body  of  Liber- 
ties'* adopted  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts in  1641  provided  for  the  existence  of  slavery  in 
the  case  of  **  lawful  captives  taken  in  just  wars, 
and  such  strangers  as  willingly  sell  themselves,  or 
are  sold  to  us,"  while  prohibiting  its  further  ex- 
tension.** Goldwin  Smith  points  out  that  although 
ships  from  New  England  took  part  in  the  slave 
trade,  *  *  the  members  of  the  religious  commonwealth 
who  made  a  murderous  raid  upon  an  African  village 
on  the  Sabbath  were  brought  to  justice  for  their 
double  crime. — Fortunately  for  New  England,  she 
had  no  industry  like  that  of  cotton,  tobacco,  or  rice, 
in  which  slave  labor  could  be  profitably  employed. 
Slaves  do  not  make  good  husbandmen  or  seamen."  ** 

« E.  G.  Payne,  Voyages  of  the  Elizabethan  Seamen  to  America, 
ch.  i;  cited  by  Lamed,  vol.  i,  pp.  67-68. 

7  J.  A.  Doyle,  The  English  in  America:  Virginia,  Maryland,  and 
the  Carolinas,  eh.  xii;  Lamed,  vol.  iv,  p.  2968. 

8  Lamed,  iv,  2920. 

9  Lamed,  v,  3030. 
loLarned,  iv,  2920. 

11  Goldwin  Smith,  The  United  States ;  an  Outline  of  Political 
History:  New  York,  1899;  p.  25.  For  slave  trade  of  New  England, 
see  E.  L.  Bogart,  The  Economic  History  of  the  U.  S. :  New  York, 
1907;  p.  121.  Lincoln  said,  in  1854:  "When  Southern  people 
tell  us  they  are  no  more  responsible  for  the  origin  of  slavery  than 
we  are,  I  acknowledge  the  fact." — Complete  Works:  New  York, 
1894;   vol.  1,  p.  187. 


CHAPTER  28 

THE  SOUTH   AGAINST  SLAVERY 

The  first  colonial  legislation  against  slavery  was 
enacted  by  Rhode  Island  in  1652,  in  order  to  check 
''the  common  course  practised  among  Englishmen 
to  buy  negers."  The  Act  provided  that  "no  black 
mankind  or  white  being  forced  by  covenant,  bond  or 
otherwise  shall  be  held  to  service  longer  than  ten 
years,"  and  that  **that  man  that  will  not  let  them 
go  free,  or  shall  sell  them  any  else  where  to  that  end 
that  they  may  be  enslaved  to  others  for  a  longer 
time,  hee  or  they  shall  forfeit  to  the  Colonie  forty 
pounds. ' '  ^ 

It  was  left  for  Virginia,  however,  to  be  the  first 
State  to  prohibit  the  further  importation  of  negroes 
to  be  sold  into  slavery.^  Under  colonial  rule  this 
step  had  been  often  attempted,  but  as  often  thwarted 
by  the  British  crown.  Peter  Fontaine  wrote  from 
Westover  in  1757  that  **our  Assembly,  foreseeing 
the  ill  consequences  of  importing  such  numbers 
amongst  us,  hath  often  attempted  to  lay  a  duty  upon 
them  which  would  amount  to  a  prohibition,  such  as 
ten  or  twenty  pounds  a  head,  but  no  Governor  dare 
pass  such  a  law,  having  instructions  to  the  contrary 
from  the  Board  of  Trade  at  home.  By  this  means 
they  are  forced  upon  us,  whether  we  will  or  not."^ 
Lecky,  the  British  historian,  concedes  that  every  at- 

1  Larned,  as  cited,  vol.  iv,  p.  2642. 

2  Fiske,  Critical  Period,  pp.  72,  74. 

»  Phillips's  Documentary  History,  as  cited,  ii,  29. 

141 


142        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

tempt  to  prohibit  or  restrict  tliat  importation  was 
rebuked  and  defeated  by  England.*  Jefferson 
was  strongly  opposed  to  the  slave  trade,  and  in- 
cluded in  his  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  a  round  denunciation  of  slavery,  with 
a  sharp  thrust  at  George  III  for  supporting  it ;  but 
the  denunciation  was  omitted  because  a  majority 
of  the  members  thought  it  inconsistent  to  hold 
George  III  responsible  for  a  slave  trade  carried  on 
by  New  England  ship-masters  for  the  benefit  of  the 
planters  of  the  South.  Jefferson  boasts,  however, 
that  the  Virginia  legislature  took  up  the  subject 
again  (1778),  when  free,  and  **in  the  very  first 
session  held  under  the  republican  government, 
passed  a  law  for  the  perpetual  prohibition  of  the  im- 
portation of  slaves. "  ^  In  these  same  Notes  on  the 
State  of  Virginia  he  condemns  slavery  in  the  most 
emphatic  language:  **With  what  execration  should 
the  statesman  be  loaded,  who,  permitting  one-half 
the  citizens  thus  to  trample  on  the  rights  of  the  other, 
transforms  those  into  despots  and  these  into  ene- 
mies." 

Washington  more  than  once  named  it  as  among 
his  **  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which 
slavery,  in  this  country,  may  be  abolished  by  law. ' '  ^ 
Madison,  as  he  himself  writes  in  his  Journal  of  the 
Federal  Convention,  **  thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in 
the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be  prop- 
erty in  men."'^  Monroe,  in  the  Virginia  Conven- 
tion,  said:    **We  have   found  that  this   evil  has 

4W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  History  of  England  in  the  18th  Century:  New 
York,  1878-1890;  vol.  ii,  eh.  5. 

6  Cited  by  Lamed,  iv,  2923. 

<H.  R.  Helper,  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South:  New  YorJ^ 
1857;  p.  193. 

7  Journal,  as  cited,  p.  610. 


THE  SOUTH  AGAINST  SLAVERY      143 

preyed  upon  the  very  vitals  of  the  Union,  and  has 
been  prejudicial  to  all  the  States,  in  which  it  has 
existed";®  while  Patrick  Henry  wrote:  ^*It  is  a 
debt  we  owe  to  the  purity  of  our  religion,  to  show 
that  it  is  at  variance  with  that  law  which  warrants 
slavery."  ^ — And  so  on  with  other  of  the  great  elder 
Virginians. 

But  Virginia  was  not  alone  among  the  Southern 
States  in  its  adverse  judgment  of  slavery.  Mary- 
land followed  her  example  in  1783  in  prohibiting  the 
further  introduction  of  slaves  and  removing  all  re- 
straints upon  emancipation.  North  Carolina,  like 
Virginia,  sent  delegates  to  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress who  pledged  their  State  not  to  import  slaves 
and  not  to  purchase  them  when  imported  by  others ; 
participating  in  the  subsequent  action  of  Congress 
that  no  slaves  be  imported  into  any  of  the  thirteen 
United  Colonies,  and  imposing  through  its  own 
legislature  in  1786  a  fine  of  £5  per  head  on  all 
negroes  thereafter  imported,  so  as  to  discourage  the 
slave  trade.  The  Eowan  county  conunittee  of 
safety  ^^  and  the  convention  of  delegates  at  Newbem 
in  1774  adopted  anti-slavery  resolutions.^^  Georgia 
likewise,  still  farther  to  the  South,  signalized  the 
opening  of  her  colonial  career  by  stringent  opposi- 
tion to  slavery,i2  -^hich  renewed  itself  after  the  for- 
mation of  the  Union,  Georgia  prohibiting  the  fur- 
ther introduction  of  slaves,  by  constitutional  pro- 
vision, in  1798.^^    A  member  of  the  first  Congress 

8  Helper,  as  cited,  p.  200. 
»  Helper,  as  cited,  p.  201. 

10  D.  A.  Tompkins,  History  of  Mecklenburg  County:     Charlotte, 
1903;  vol.  i,  p.  86. 

11  Helper,  as  cited,  p.  22. 

12  Lamed,  as  cited,  vol.  ii,  p.  1425. 

13  Alexander  Johnston,  Aineriean  Political  History,  1763-1876: 
Boston,  1912;  vol.  ii,  p.  25. 


144        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

declared:  **Not  a  man  in  Georgia  but  wishes  there 
were  no  slaves.  They  are  a  curse  to  the  coun- 
try."" 

Eamsay's  History  shows  that  in  1774  a  conven- 
tion of  South  Carolina  citizens  **  resolved  that  His 
Majesty's  subjects  in  North  America  (without  re- 
spect to  color  or  other  accidents)  are  entitled  to  all 
the  inherent  rights  and  liberties  of  his  natural  bom 
subjects  within  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain";^® 
and  we  have  already  heard  Charles  Pinckney  de- 
clare before  the  Constitutional  Convention  that  if 
the  States  were  left  at  liberty  South  Carolina  might 
of  her  own  accord  stop  the  slave  importation.^^  Lin- 
coln frequently  cites  the  remark  of  a  later  South 
Carolina  congressman  to  the  effect  that  when  the 
Constitutional  Convention  was  held,  it  was  the  belief 
of  no  man  that  slavery  would  long  continue." 

While  this  Convention  was  deliberating  in  Phila- 
delphia, Congress  organized  the  Northwest  territory 
that  had  been  ceded  by  Virginia,  and  included  in 
the  ordinance  a  proviso  that  slavery  should  be  shut 
out  from  all  of  the  vast  area  northwest  of  the  Ohio 
Eiver;  it  being  notable  that  this  ordinance  secured 
the  unanimous  concurrence  of  the  States,  with  the 
exception  of  a  single  individual  vote,  which  was 
cast  by  a  Northern  man.  The  Southern  States  were 
unanimous  for  it.^^ 

i*MeMa8ter,  as  cited,  vol.  ii,  p.  359. 

15  Cited  by  Helper,  p.  228. 

16  See  page  138. 

17  Complete  Works,  as  cited,  vol.  i,  pp.  268,  347,  480,  511,  516,  615. 

18  Fiske,  Critical  Period,  p.  205;  Writings  and  Speeches  of  Daniel 
Webster:    Boston,  1903;  vol.  x,  p.  68. 


CHAPTER  29 

SOUTHERN   SLAVERY  DECLINES 

The  unanimous  Southern  vote  against  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery  was  cast  in  the  year  1787;  but 
six  years  later  something  happened.  If  it  had  not 
been  for  this  overshadowing  event  and  the  enormous 
economic  consequences  that  arose  from  it  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  compromise  of  the  Constitu- 
tion which  provided  that  no  slaves  should  be  im- 
ported after  1808  would  have  been  on  all  sides 
heartily  accepted,  and  slavery  eventually  abolished 
from  all  the  States,  in  the  South  and  the  North  to- 
gether. At  the  time  the  Constitution  was  adopted, 
New  York,  for  example,  had  nearly  as  many  slaves 
as  Georgia,  and  New  Jersey  had  as  many  as  the 
much  larger  Southern  territory  of  Kentucky;  but 
their  labor  was  not  adapted  to  the  climate  and  soil 
of  the  North,  where  a  falling  off  could  naturally  be 
expected.  What  is  far  more  important  is  the  in- 
teresting fact  that  the  three  peculiar  industries  that 
had  made  negro  slavery  profitable  to  the  South  were 
now  entering  on  a  stage  of  rapid  economic  decline : 
indigo,  rice,  and  tobacco.^ 

The  decline  of  indigo  was  brought  about  largely 
by  England.  Impressed  by  Lord  ShefiBeld's  gloomy 
survey  of  American  prospects,  the  British  Govern- 
ment systematically  sought  to  embarrass  the  new 

1  Sugar  is  negligible  in  this  discussion  because  of  its  confinement 
to  a  very  small  area.     See  Report  of  13th  Census,  vol.  v,  p.  685. 

145 


146        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

Eepublic  by  such  measures  as  the  prevention  of  the 
emigration  of  skilled  laborers  to  America,  or  of  the 
exportation  of  machinery;  and,  specifically,  by  ruin- 
ing the  important  indigo  industry  through  compel- 
ling the  peasants  of  recently  conquered  Bengal  to 
cultivate  the  indigo  plant  in  great  quantity.  By  the 
year  1790  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  had  been  en- 
tirely forced  out  of  this  lucrative  business.  Eice, 
from  the  fact  of  its  necessary  restriction  to  nar- 
rowly limited  areas,  required  only  a  small  body  of 
labor;  besides,  its  cultivation  had  greatly  declined 
at  the  close  of  the  Eevolutionary  "War,  the  crop  of 
1783  being  less  than  one-half  of  the  average  annual 
production  before  the  war,  and  this  staple  never 
again  approximating  its  former  proportions.^ 

The  superlative  importance  of  tobacco  in  relation 
to  slavery  prior  to  1793  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
in  1790  there  were  293,427  slaves  in  Virginia,  a  to- 
bacco State,  and  only  29,264  in  Georgia,  which  pro- 
duced rice  and  sugar  cane ;  while  little  Maryland,  an- 
other tobacco  State,  contained  almost  as  many  as 
South  Carolina;  Virginia  and  Maryland  together, 
the  tobacco  States,  owning  296,463  slaves  as  against 
246,177  for  all  the  other  States  of  the  South  com- 
bined, or  nearly  three-fifths  of  all  the  slaves  in  the 
Union.^  But  tobacco  proved  to  be  a  tyrannous  crop, 
as  then  cultivated,  besides  producing  a  rapid  ex- 
haustion of  soil.  An  early  planter  thus  plaintively 
wrote  of  his  troubles : 

**In  Virginia  and  Maryland  Tobacco  is  our  Staple, 
is  our  All,  and  Indeed  leaves  no  room  for  anything 
Else;  It  requires  the  Attendance  of  all  our  hands, 
and  Exacts  their  utmost  labour,  the  whole  year 

2M.  B.  Hammond,  as  cited,  pp.  14-15,  39. 
8  For  Slave  Tables  see  Appendix  F :  2a. 


SOUTHERN  SLAVERY  DECLINES      147 

round ;  it  requires  us  to  abhor  Communitys  or  town- 
ships, since  a  Planter  cannot  Carry  on  his  Affairs 
without  considerable  Elbow  room,  within  his  planta- 
tion. When  All  is  done,  and  our  Tobacco  sent  home, 
it  is  perchance  the  most  uncertain  Commodity  that 
Comes  to  Markett;  and  the  management  of  it  there 
is  of  such  a  nature  and  method  that  it  seems  to  be  of 
all  other,  most  lyable  and  subject  to  frauds,  in  preju- 
dice to  the  poor  Planters. ' '  * 

Jefferson,  writing  in  1781,  said  that  the  culture  of 
tobacco  ''was  fast  declining  at  the  commencement  of 
this  war,"  and  that  ''it  must  continue  to  decline  on 
the  return  of  peace."  His  biographers  say  that  as 
fast  as  the  richness  of  the  soil  could  be  converted 
into  tobacco  it  was  sent  to  London  and  exchanged 
for  fine  mansions,  heavy  furniture,  costly  apparel, 
wines,  fine  horses,  coaches  and  slaves.  The  soil  was 
rapidly  exhausted,  the  price  of  negroes  always  on 
the  increase,  and  the  price  of  tobacco  always  going 
downward.^ 

There  can  be  little  doubt,  in  view  of  the  strong 
Southern  sentiment  against  slavery — prior  to  1793 
— and  in  view  also  of  the  apathy  toward  it  result- 
ing from  the  decline  of  the  three  crops  which  had 
been  its  mainstay  and  support,  that  all  of  the  South- 
ern States  would  have  joined  those  of  the  North 
in  giving  up  slavery,  as  they  had  repeatedly  en- 
deavored to  do  while  still  colonies,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  sudden  apparition  of  the  great  cotton  crop,^ 

4  Documentary  History,  as  cited,  i,  282-283. 

6W.  E.  Curtis,  The  True  Thos.  Jeflferson:  Philadelphia,  1901; 
p.  73. 

6  The  Rev.  Wm.  Winterbotham  wrote  in  1795:  "Cotton  has  been 
lately  adopted  as  an  article  of  culture  in  the  Southern  States;  and 
as  the  prices  of  rice,  tobacco,  and  indigo  decline,  it  must  be  very 
beneficial." — Cited  by  A.  B.  Hart  in  American  History  Told  by  Con- 
temporaries:    New  York,  1908  j  vol.  iii,  p.  67. 


148        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

conjured  by  the  genius  of  Whitney,  and  dwarfing  to 
comparative  insignificance  all  of  the  other  Southern 
resources  by  the  instant  employment  of  the  half- 
idle  slaves,  whose  presence  had  begun  to  be  felt  as 
a  burden.  So  far  had  the  movement  for  the  extinc- 
tion of  slavery  proceeded  that  Tench  Coxe  wrote 
in  1794:  **The  separate  American  States  (with  one 
small  exception)  have  abolished  the  slave  trade,  and 
they  have  in  some  instances  abolished  negro  slavery ; 
in  others  they  have  adopted  efiBcacious  measures  for 
its  certain  but  gradual  abolition.  The  importation 
of  slaves  is  discontinued  and  can  never  be  renewed 
so  as  to  interrupt  the  peace  of  Africa,  or  endanger 
the  tranquillity  of  the  United  States."'  A  South- 
em  historian  of  the  cotton  trade,  and  an  apologist 
of  slavery,  wrote  at  a  much  later  date  (1863) :  "It 
is  fortunate  for  the  blacks,  as  well  as  the  whites, 
that  the  cotton  business  sprang  up,  for  the  sons  of 
Africa  do  not  flourish  in  a  state  of  freedom,  and 
without  the  cultivation  of  the  leading  staple  of  com- 
merce there  would  not  have  been  sufficient  occupa- 
tion for  them.  The  planters  would  have  preferred 
to  manumit  their  slaves,  which,  in  fact,  was  done, 
rather  than  be  encumbered  with  idle  and  superfluous 
hands. ' '  ^ 

7  Cited  by  Bogart,  p.  119. 

8G.  McHenry,  The  Cotton  Trade:     1863;   cited  by  M.  B.  Ham- 
mond, p.  41. 


CHAPTER  30 

A  STAETLING  EEVERSAL, 

Between  1790  and  1800,  while  the  slave  popula- 
tion fell  ojEf  in  the  North,  it  disappointed  all  expecta- 
tion by  increasing  nearly  33  per  cent  in  the  South. 
The  next  decade  showed  even  a  more  startling  di- 
vergence. The  number  of  Southern  slaves  in- 
creased from  847,095  in  1800  to  1,163,854  in  1810, 
while  the  Northern  slave  population  fell  from  35,946 
to  27,510.  New  York  and  Georgia,  which  had  stood 
not  far  apart  in  1790,  now  showed  an  enormous 
divergence:  15,000  in  New  York  and  105,000  in 
Georgia,  thousands  of  Northern  slaves  having 
flocked  into  the  South  in  response  to  an  economic 
summons.^ 

How  powerful  and  sudden  was  this  summons 
is  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  fact  that  whereas 
in  the  year  of  Eli  Whitney's  invention  the  South 
produced  only  10,460  bales  (of  500  pounds  gross 
weight)  of  ginned  cotton,  it  produced  177,824 
bales  in  1810,  of  which  it  exported  almost  three- 
fourths,  at  151/2  cents  a  pound.  The  significance 
of  these  figures  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
table  2  at  a  glance : — 

1  "The  farmers  of  the  Northern  States  were  enabled  to  sell  their 
slaves,  who  had  become  an  expensive  burden  to  them,  to  the  cotton 
planters  of  the  South." — M.  B.  Hammond,  as  cited,  pp.  47-48. 

2  Based  on  U.  S.  Census  Reports  for  number  of  slaves ;  and  on 
Bulletin  No.  131  of  Department  of  Commerce  for  cotton  statistics: 
Washington,  1915;  p.  82.  See  Appendix  F:  2a  for  slave  figures  for 
aU  the  States,  1790-1860. 

149 


150        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

1790  1793  1810 

Slaves  in  New  York. 21,324  (Whitney     invented      15,017 

Slaves    in    Georgia.  .29,264  the  gin)  105,218 

Cotton  production   ..  3,138  bales  10,400  bales  177,824  bales 

Cotton   exports    379      "  3,565     "  124,116    " 

During  this  same  period,  the  commercial  value  of 
the  African  slave  had  trebled,  and  it  continued  to 
increase  enormously.  Hammond,  after  showing 
that  the  price  of  the  best  "field  hands"  grew  from 
$200  in  1790  to  $1,000  in  1850  and  $2,000  in  1860, 
goes  on  to  say:  **It  was  cotton,  and  cotton  alone, 
which  was  responsible  for  this  increase  in  the  value 
of  slave  property.  In  spite  of  the  use  of  slaves  in 
the  tobacco  fields  and  on  the  rice  and  sugar  planta- 
tions, the  number  of  slaves  employed  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  all  other  crops  than  cotton  in  1850  was  only 
slightly  in  excess  of  the  number  of  slaves  in  the 
United  States  in  1790,  before  the  culture  of  the 
white  staple  had  attained  any  importance.  The  nat- 
ural increase  among  the  blacks  was  almost  entirely 
consumed  by  the  cotton  plantations,  and  even  then 
the  demand  of  the  cotton  planters  was  not  satisfied. 
'The  great  limitation  in  production'  (of  cotton), 
said  De  Bow,  *is  labor.'  For  slave  labor  was  con- 
sidered at  the  South  as  the  only  kind  which  could 
be  used  in  cultivating  cotton.  Everywhere  in  the 
slave  region,  in  the  border  States  as  well  as  in  the 
cotton  belt,  the  value  of  the  negro  as  a  cotton  culti- 
vator determined  the  price  for  which  he  would  sell. 
*In  estimating  the  market  value  of  his  labor,  he  was 
viewed  for  the  time  from  the  traders '  point  of  view, 
or,  as  if  the  question  were — What  is  he  worth  for 
cotton?'  "  ^  Frederick  J.  Turner  says,  in  his  ''Rise 
of  the  New  West,"  that  "never  in  history,  perhaps, 
was  an  economic  force  more  influential  upon  the  life 

3  M.  B.  Hammond,  as  cited,  p.  52. 


A  STARTLING  REVERSAL  151 

of  a  people. — This  economic  transformation  resusci- 
tated slavery  from  a  moribmid  condition  to  a  vigo- 
rous and  aggressive  life."^  And  Woodrow  Wilson 
adds:  ''Before  this  tremendous  development  of 
cotton  culture  had  taken  place,  slavery  had  hardly 
more  than  habit  and  the  perils  of  emancipation  to 
support  it  in  the  South :  Southern  life  and  industry 
had  shaped  themselves  to  it,  and  the  slaves  were  too 
numerous  and  too  ignorant  to  be  safely  set  free. 
But  when  the  cotton-gin  supplied  the  means  of  in- 
definitely expanding  the  production  of  marketable 
cotton  by  the  use  of  slave  labor,  another  and  even 
more  powerful  argument  for  its  retention  was  fur- 
nished. After  that,  slavery  seemed  nothing  less 
than  the  indispensable  economic  instrument  of 
Southern  society."^ 

Influenced  by  economic  considerations.  South  Caro- 
lina in  1803  repealed  its  law  against  the  further 
importation  of  slaves,  cotton  exports  having  grown 
in  ten  years  from  a  million  and  a  half  pounds  (in 
1793)  to  more  than  thirty-five  million  pounds  (in 
1803).  Other  Southern  States  were  influenced  by 
similar  considerations;  Virginia  and  Maryland,  for 
example,  being  enabled  to  recuperate  from  losses  due 
to  the  decline  of  the  tobacco  industry  by  raising 
negroes,  out  of  their  own  abundant  supply,  for  the 
new  Southern  market,  so  that  Professor  Dew  wrote 
in  1832 :  **  Virginia  is,  in  fact,  a  negro  raising  State 
for  other  States.  She  produces  enough  for  her  own 
supply,  and  six  thousand  for  sale."^  Four  years 
later,  when  the  adaptability  of  the  Mississippi  coun- 
try to  cotton  culture  had  been  fully  demonstrated, 

4 The  Eise  of  the  New  West:     New  York,  1906;  pp.  48,  49. 
5  Division  and  Reunion:     New  York,  1909;   p.   126. 
«  Cited  by  M.  B.  Hammond,  p.  63. 


152 


COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 


Virginia  sent  120,000  slaves  in  a  single  year  into  this 
new  region,'^  where  slavery  as  an  adjunct  to  the  cot- 
ton crop  secured  a  firmer  hold  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  country. 

The  South  had  thus  been  economically  welded  into 
a  great  unified  section,  with  a  common  view-point 
and  identical  interests,  while  a  similar  process,  due 
also  in  large  measure  to  cotton,  had  been  taking 
place  in  the  North;  factionalism  among  the  States 
being  in  consequence  replaced  by  sectionalism  be- 
tween two  groups  of  States,  so  that  two  great  sec- 
tions were  thus  gradually  arraying  themselves  on 
opposite  sides  in  an  economic  and  political  struggle 
that  resulted  at  last  in  war. 

The  following  table  ^  strikingly  illustrates  the 
changes  in  the  character  of  the  population  that  oc- 
curred in  the  South  with  the  increasing  production 
of  cotton.  The  border  States,  some  of  which  grew 
tobacco  in  large  quantities,  began,  it  will  be  noted, 
with  a  larger  percentage  of  negroes  than  the  cotton 

I*ERCENTAGE  OP   NeGRO   POPULATION   IN  THE   TwO   SeTS   OP 

Southern  States  prom  1790  to  1860 


Yeae 

Cotton  States 

BoBDEE  States 

Whites,  % 

Negroes,  % 

Whites,  % 

Negroes,  % 

1790 

67.3 

32.7 

63.2 

36.8 

1800 

66.7 

33.3 

63.8 

36.2 

1810 

63. 

37. 

63.8 

36.2 

1820 

61.2 

38.8 

64.6 

35.4 

1830 

60.3 

39.7 

65.6 

34.4 

1840 

59.2 

40.8 

68.8 

31.2 

1850 

58.9 

41.1 

72.8 

27.2 

1860 

58.6 

41.4 

76.9 

23.1 

7  The  same,  p.  50. 

8  E.  von  Halle,  Baumwollproduktion  und  Pflanzungswirtschaft  in 
den  Nordamerikanischen  Siidstaaten:  Leipzig,  1897;  Erster  Tail: 
Die  Sklavenzeit;  p.  131. 


A  STAETLING  REVEESAL  153 

States;  but  by  1860,  just  before  the  war  broke  out, 
this  percentage  was  reduced  by  one-third,  owing  to 
the  "draw"  of  the  cotton  industry;  which  shows,  in 
the  cotton  States  column,  a  negro  percentage  steadily 
climbing,  while  the  reverse  principle  obtained  with 
the  whites,  who  decreased  in  the  cotton  territory 
while  increasing  in  the  States  along  the  border. 

The  time  has  now  come  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
American  inventor  who,  by  unconsciously  respond- 
ing to  the  enormous  foreign  demand  for  cotton  aris- 
ing from  British  inventions,  created  the  new  eco- 
nomic force  in  American  history  that  had  such  far- 
reaching  results. 


CHAPTER  31 1 

WHITNEY  IN   GEORGIA 

In  the  autumn  of  1792  a  young  college  graduate 
sailed  from  New  York  for  Savannah,  on  his  way  to 
South  Carolina  to  teach  school.  He  had  never  seen 
a  boll  of  cotton  in  his  life.  A  year  later  he  made 
the  first  cotton  gin,  which  caused  his  great  and  gen- 
erous rival  in  inventive  genius,  Robert  Fulton,  to 
class  him  among  the  three  men  who  accomplished 
more  for  mankind  than  any  other  men  of  their 
times. 

Prominent  among  the  ladies  on  shipboard  with 
Whitney  when  he  left  New  York  was  the  widow  of 
the  great  Revolutionary  general,  Nathaniel  Greene; 
a  woman  of  quick  thought  and  generous  impulses, 
returning  with  her  family  to  Mulberry  Grove  planta- 
tion after  a  summer  spent  in  the  North.  During  the 
tedious  days  of  the  long  voyage,  as  the  sailing  ship 
tossed  to  the  whim  of  the  winds  or  lay  almost  be- 
calmed in  mid-ocean,  a  friendship  ripened  between 
the  young  Yale  scholar  and  this  wealthy  Georgia 
matron,  which  profoundly  influenced  the  world.  It 
was  purely  platonic,  to  be  sure ;  the  lady  shortly  aft* 
erward  married  the  man  who  became  Whitney's 

1  Chief  authorities,  Chapters  31-33:  Correspondence  of  Eli  Whit- 
ney, edited  by  M.  B.  Hammond:  American  Historical  Review, 
October,  1897;  Memoir  of  Eli  Whitney,  by  D.  Olmsted:  American 
Journal  of  Science,  vol.  xxi,  1832;  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil,  by  D.  A. 
Tompkins,  Charlotte,  N.  C,  1901. 

154 


WHITNEY  IN  GEORGIA  155 

partner,  Phineas  Miller ;  but  it  brought  to  Eli  Whit- 
ney fame  and  fortune,  because  it  directly  fostered 
his  invention. 

Mulberry  Grove  was  the  name  of  a  great  planta- 
tion (on  the  river  near  Savannah)  that  had  been  con- 
fiscated by  the  State  of  Georgia  during  the  Eevolu- 
tion  and  afterward  bestowed  on  General  Greene  for 
his  gallant  services.  It  was  maintained  in  munifi- 
cent style,  with  a  retinue  of  fifty  negro  servants ;  and 
so  pleased  was  Mrs.  Greene  with  young  Whitney 
that  she  invited  him  to  make  his  first  acquaintance 
with  the  South  from  the  vantage  ground  of  Mul- 
berry Grove  hospitality. 

Mechanical  ingenuity  had  been  Whitney's  bent 
from  youth.  Born  on  a  Massachusetts  farm — in 
Worcester  County,  December  8,  1765 — he  had  early 
haunted  the  tool  house.  At  the  age  of  twelve,  the 
story  runs,  his  curiosity  prompted  him  to  take  his 
father's  watch  to  pieces,  and  his  native  ingenuity 
enabled  him  to  put  it  together  again  without  his 
father  being  any  the  wiser.  When  only  fifteen  or 
sixteen  years  old,  he  ended  a  nail  famine  of  war- 
times by  setting  up  a  nail  factory  of  his  own,  with 
much  profit  to  his  hard-handed  father.  Overcom- 
ing many  obstacles,  he  at  length  achieved  the  ambi- 
tion of  his  youth  by  entering  the  freshman  class  of 
Yale  College  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  and  gradu- 
ating four  years  later,  just  before  going  to  Sa- 
vannah. 

The  poetic  side  of  his  disposition,  which  had  often 
betrayed  itself  during  college  days,  must  have  been 
stirred  profoundly  by  the  charm  of  his  new  Southern 
home.  Mrs.  Greene's  plantation  had  originally  re- 
ceived its  name  from  the  profusion  of  mulberry 
trees  peculiar  to  this  favored  locality.    In  the  deep 


156        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

forests  near  by  the  gray  drapery  of  moss-hung  an- 
cient oaks  was  relieved  by  the  satin  gleam  of  mag- 
nolia leaves,  heavy  with  sweetness,  or  by  the  fronds 
of  graceful  palmettoes.  In  the  shallow  lonely  bayou 
boomed  the  bull-frog,  incredibly  resonant,  or  the 
alligator  bellowed  out  his  louder  bass;  while  bright 
against  this  dark  background  of  sound  could  be  heard 
the  silver  melodies  of  birds.  **  Every  traveler  ex- 
pressed his  pleasure  in  listening  to  the  mocking- 
bird, which  caroled  a  thousand  several  tunes,  imitat- 
ing and  excelling  the  notes  of  all  its  rivals.  The 
humming-bird,  so  brilliant  in  its  plumage,  and  so 
delicate  in  its  form,  quick  in  motion,  yet  not  fear- 
ing the  presence  of  man,  haunting  the  flowers  like 
the  bee  gathering  honey,  rebounding  from  the  blos- 
soms into  which  it  dips  its  bill,  and  as  soon  return- 
ing to  renew  its  many  addresses  to  its  delightful 
objects ;  myriads  of  pigeons,  darkening  the  air  with 
the  immensity  of  their  flocks,  and,  as  men  believed, 
breaking  with  their  weight  the  boughs  of  trees  on 
which  they  alighted ; "  ^  the  nimble  squirrel,  the  sly 
raccoon,  and  the  homely  opossum,  famed  for  the 
marsupial  care  of  its  young — these  peopled  the  old 
Southern  woods  with  abounding  life,  and  filled  them 
with  deep  charm. 

But  the  chief  center  of  interest  was  of  course  the 
broad  plantations,  spreading  fertile  acres  in  the 
sun.  The  marshes  were  reclaimed  from  barrenness 
by  verdant  fields  of  rice;  on  the  dryer  uplands 
rustled  broad  acres  of  Indian  corn,  yellow  pump- 
kins gleaming  like  gold  between  the  rows ;  while  peas 
and  potatoes  and  huge  luscious  watermelons 
abounded.  At  night,  in  front  of  their  swarming 
cabins,  the  negroes  would  sit  in  a  circle  lit  by  a  flam- 

2  Bancroft's  History. 


WHITNEY  IN  GEORGIA  157 

ing  pine  torch,  one  of  their  number  being  detailed 
by  the  overseer  to  prevent  indolence  and  dozing, 
while  they  picked  drowsily  at  the  stubborn  "vege- 
table wool"  of  the  uplands,  which,  when  once  freed 
from  its  tenacious  seeds,  was  adaptable  to  a  far 
greater  variety  of  uses  than  its  restricted  sea-island 
rival. 

Such  were  the  scenes  that  young  Whitney  en- 
countered in  Georgia  at  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century. 


CHAPTER  321 

WHITNEY   INVENTS  THE   GIN 

During  the  time  of  Whitney's  visit,  Mulberry 
Grove  entertained  also  a  large  party  of  army  officers 
from  Augusta  and  the  **up  country"  who  had  served 
under  General  Greene  in  the  war.  Among  them 
were  Major  Pendleton,  Major  Forsyth,  and  Major 
Bremen.  These  gentlemen  happened  to  discuss  the 
immense  prosperity  the  South  might  enjoy  if  only 
a  proper  **gin"  could  be  devised  for  the  green-seed 
upland  cotton.  Roller  gins,  evolved  from  the  Hindu 
'^churka"  (see  page  19),  had  long  been  in  existence 
for  the  sea-island  variety,  making  the  work  of  sepa- 
ration five  times  as  expeditious  as  by  hand ;  but  these 
were  entirely  ineffectual  with  the  short-staple  fiber 
of  the  uplands. 

With  a  woman's  friendly  enthusiasm,  Mrs.  Greene 
is  said  to  have  exclaimed : 

"Gentlemen,  apply  to  my  young  friend  Mr.  Whit- 
ney— ^he  can  make  anything!" 

She  then  showed  the  party  some  proofs  of  her 
visitor's  cleverness,  including  a  convenient  em- 
broidery frame  that  he  had  mended  or  made  for  her, 
and  toys  contrived  for  the  children  during  the  few 
days  he  had  spent  in  the  mansion.  Whitney  was 
thereupon  called  from  his  room,  and  the  situation 
half  humorously  presented. 

"I  have  accomplished  my  aim,"  said  Mrs.  Greene; 

iSee  Chapter  31. 

168 


WHITNEY  INVENTS  THE  GIN         159 

"Mr.  Whitney  is  a  very  deserving  young  man,  and 
to  bring  him  into  notice  was  my  object." 

How  wide  this  notice  was  to  extend  lay  beyond 
the  power  of  her  most  friendly  conjecture.  Friend- 
ship had  done  its  work;  Whitney's  energy  and  in- 
genuity were  to  do  the  rest. 

A  room  was  set  apart  in  the  basement  as  a  work- 
shop for  this  amateur  inventor.  With  only  the  plan- 
tation tools  he  applied  himself  to  his  task,  having 
even  to  draw  his  own  wire.  First  he  fixed  wire  teeth 
to  a  board,  and  managed,  by  pulling  the  cotton 
through  the  teeth,  to  leave  the  stubborn  little  woolly 
seeds  behind.  Then  he  reasoned  that  by  applying 
these  wire  "teeth  to  a  cylinder  the  cotton  could  be 
rolled  through  with  rapidity.  By  the  addition  of  a 
rotating  brush  to  clean  the  wire  teeth  free  of  the 
lint,  the  first  Whitney  gin  was  completed. 

In  a  letter  to  his  father  Whitney  described  his  ex- 
perience as  follows : 

* '  I  went  from  N.  York  with  the  family  of  the  late 
Major  General  Greene  to  Georgia.  I  went  imme- 
diately with  the  family  to  their  Plantation  about 
twelve  miles  from  Savannah  with  an  expectation 
of  spending  four  or  five  days  and  then  proceed  into 
Carolina  to  take  the  school  as  I  have  mentioned  in 
former  letters.  During  this  time  I  heard  much  said 
of  the  difficulty  of  ginning  Cotton,  that  is,  seperating 
it  from  its  seeds.  There  were  a  number  of  very  re- 
spectable Gentlemen  at  Mrs.  Greene's  who  all  agreed 
that  if  a  machine  could  be  invented  which  would 
clean  the  cotton  with  expedition,  it  would  be  a  great 
thing  both  to  the  Country  and  to  the  inventor.  I  in- 
voluntarily happened  to  be  thinking  on  the  subject 
and  struck  out  a  plan  of  a  Machine  in  my  mind, 
which  I  conomunicated  to  Miller,  (who  is  agent  to 


160        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

the  executors  of  Genl.  Greene  and  resides  in  the 
family,  a  man  of  respectability  and  property)  he 
was  pleased  with  the  Plan  and  said  if  I  would  pur- 
sue it  and  try  an  experiment  to  see  if  it  would  an- 
swer, he  would  be  at  the  whole  expense.  I  should 
lose  nothing  but  my  time,  and  if  I  succeeded  we 
would  share  the  profits.  Previous  to  this  I  found 
I  was  like  to  be  disappointed  in  my  school,  that  is, 
mstead  of  a  hundred,  I  found  I  could  get  only  fifty 
Guineas  a  year.  I  however  held  the  refusal  of  the 
school  until  I  tried  some  experiments.  In  about 
ten  Days  I  made  a  little  model,  for  which  I  was  of- 
fered, if  I  would  give  up  all  right  and  title  to  it,  a 
Hundred  Guineas.  I  concluded  to  relinquish  my 
school  and  turn  my  attention  to  perfecting  the  Ma- 
chine. I  made  one  before  I  came  away  which  re- 
quired the  labor  of  one  man  to  turn .  it  and  with 
which  one  man  will  clean  ten  times  as  much  cotton  as 
he  can  in  any  other  way  before  known  and  also 
cleanse  it  much  better  than  in  the  usual  mode.  This 
machine  may  be  turned  by  water  or  with  a  horse, 
with  the  greatest  ease,  and  one  man  and  a  horse  will 
do  more  than  fifty  men  with  the  old  machines.  It 
makes  the  labor  fifty  times  less,  without  throwing 
any  class  of  People  out  of  business." 

Having  formed  a  partnership  with  Phineas  Mil- 
ler on  the  27th  of  May,  1793,  Whitney  set  out  at  once 
for  New  England,  to  further  the  plans  of  the  firm. 
On  the  20th  of  June  he  applied  to  the  Government 
for  a  patent.  Thomas  Jefferson  being  Secretary  of 
State,  the  petition  duly  came  to  his  notice,  and  at 
once  stirred  his  always  insatiable  interest.  He 
wrote  to  Whitney  as  follows : 

**As  the  State  of  Virginia,  of  which  I  am,  carries 
on  manufactures  of  cotton  to  a  great  extent,  as  I 


WHITNEY  INVENTS  THE  GIN         161 

also  do  myself  and  as  one  of  our  greatest  embarrass- 
ments is  the  cleaning  of  the  cotton  of  the  seed,  I 
feel  a  considerable  interest  in  the  success  of  your  in- 
vention, for  family  use.  Permit  me  therefore  to 
ask  information  from  you  on  these  points.  Has  the 
machine  been  thoroughly  tried  in  the  ginning  of  cot- 
ton, or  is  it  yet  but  a  machine  of  theory?  What 
quantity  has  it  cleaned  on  an  average  of  several 
days,  and  worked  by  hand,  and  by  how  many  hands  ! 
What  will  be  the  cost  of  one  of  them  made  to  be 
worked  by  hand  ?  Favorable  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions would  induce  me  to  engage  one  of  them  to  be 
forwarded  to  Richmond  for  me. ' ' 

In  a  reply  dated  November  24,  1793,  Whitney 
wrote  to  Jefferson  as  f oUows : 

"It  is  almost  a  year  since  I  first  turned  my  at- 
tention to  constructing  this  machine,  at  which  time  I 
was  in  the  State  of  Georgia.  Within  about  ten  days 
after  my  first  conception  of  the  plan,  I  made  a  small 
though  imperfect  model.  Experiments  with  this, 
encouraged  me  to  make  one  on  a  larger  scale;  but 
the  extreme  diflSculty  of  procuring  workmen  and 
proper  materials  in  Georgia,  prevented  my  com- 
pleting the  larger  one  until  some  time  in  April  last. 
This,  though  much  larger  than  my  first  attempt,  is 
not  above  one  third  as  large  as  the  machines  may  be 
made  with  convenience. — The  cylinder  is  only  two 
feet  two  inches  in  length,  and  six  inches  diameter. 
It  is  turned  hy  hand,  and  requires  the  strength  of 
one  man  to  keep  it  in  constant  motion.  It  is  the 
stated  task  of  one  negro  to  clean  fifty  weight  (I  mean 
fifty  pounds  after  it  is  seperated  from  the  seed),  of 
the  green  seed  cotton  per  day. '  * 

Jefferson  assured  the  inventor  that  a  patent  would 
be  granted  on  the  gin  as  soon  as  a  model  could  be 


162        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

lodged  in  the  Patent  Office,  but  this  transaction  was 
not  completed  until  after  he  had  resigned  his  posi- 
tion as  Secretary  of  State.  On  March  14,  1794, 
Whitney  obtained  his  patent  for  a  cotton  gin  con- 
sisting in  spikes  driven  in  a  wooden  cylinder,  and 
having  a  slotted  bar  through  which  these  spiked 
teeth  pass,  together  with  a  brush  to  clear  the  spikes. 
It  was  signed  by  George  Washington,  President ;  Ed- 
mund Eandolph,  Secretary  of  State ;  and  Wm.  Brad- 
ford, Attorney. 

Two  years  later — May  12, 1796 — a  resourceful  and 
practical  mechanic  of  Augusta,  Hodgen  Holmes  by 
name,  secured  a  patent  for  a  valuable  improvement 
on  Whitney's  cotton  gin,  consisting  in  the  substitu- 
tion of  circular  saws  for  wire  teeth.  Holmes's  pat- 
ent for  the  saw  gin  was  signed  by  George  Washing- 
ton, President;  Timothy  Pickering,  Secretary  of 
State;  and  Chas.  Lee,  Attorney  General.  Both  of 
the  original  records  were  destroyed  in  the  Patent 
Office  fire  of  1836,  but  authentic  copies  certified  by 
James  Madison  as  Secretary  of  State  in  1804,  are  on 
file  in  the  court  house  at  Savannah. 


CHAPTER  33  ^ 

EU   WHITNEY  VS.   HODGEN   HOLMES 

Certified  copies  of  the  patents  of  Whitney  and 
Holmes  happen  to  be  in  Savannah  because  of  pro- 
longed litigation  between  Miller  and  Whitney  on  the 
one  hand  and  numerous  alleged  trespassers  on  their 
rights  on  the  other.  The  storm  centered  around 
Hodgen  Holmes,  whose  cylinders  were  set  with  saws 
instead  of  spikes.  Spikes  had  torn  open  the  seeds 
and  badly  mangled  the  fiber,  while  the  oil,  oozing 
from  out  the  crushed  seeds,  soon  clogged  the  gin 
with  moist  lint;  but  all  of  these  difficulties  were 
alleviated  by  the  simple  substitution  of  saws,  which 
cut  the  lint  free  without  mangling  the  seeds,  so  that 
the  original  Whitney  model  was  soon  by  way  of 
being  superseded.  Instead  of  adopting  the  saw 
cylinder  as  an  improvement  by  another  inventor, 
Whitney  attempted  to  claim  for  himself  credit  for 
the  Hodgen  Holmes  device.  An  impartial  examina- 
tion of  all  the  accessible  original  documents  proves 
him  and  his  partner  Miller  to  have  been  in  the 
wrong.- 

iSee  Chapter  31. 

2  The  curious  reader  is  referred,  for  a  complete  survey  of  the 
necessary  evidence  in  this  interesting  case,  to  Correspondence  of  Eli 
Whitney  (M.  B.  Hammond,  editor),  in  the  American  Historical 
Review  for  October,  1897;  and  to  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil,  by  D.  A. 
Tompkins:  Charlotte,  N.  C,  1901,  ch.  ii,  and  appendix.  In  the 
Correspondence,  compare  especially  the  letter  of  Miller  dated  Jan- 
uary 19,  1803,  with  Whitney's  letters  of  September  11,  1793,  and 
March  7  and  October  15,  1803,  and  note  the  sharp  inconsistencies 
touching  the  use  of  saws  on  the  cylinders. 

163 


164        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

Whitney's  fundamental  mistake,  out  of  which 
other  troubles  grew,  was  his  attempt  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Miller  to  monopolize  the  whole  cotton  in- 
dustry. Refusing  to  sell  any  gins,  he  demanded  one 
out  of  every  three  pounds  of  lint  as  toll  for  their 
use,  at  a  time  when  lint  was  selling  at  an  average  of 
thirty  cents  a  pound.  At  other  times  he  fixed  a  tax 
of  two  hundred  dollars  or  more  on  every  ma- 
chine in  use.  As  ginning  immediately  leaped  to 
huge  proportions,  and  as  the  country  had  not  yet 
grown  accustomed  to  ''trusts,"  there  were  numer- 
ous protests  against  Whitney's  system  from  a  peo- 
ple who  had  just  won  their  liberty.  For  example. 
Governor  Jackson  of  Georgia  in  1800  sent  the  legis- 
lature a  message  on  this  subject,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  are  taken. 

"The  two  important  States  of  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina,"  writes  the  Governor,  *'are  made  tribu- 
tary to  two  persons  who  have  obtained  patents  and 
who  demand,  as  I  am  informed,  $200.00  for  the  mere 
liberty  of  using  a  ginning  machine,  in  the  erection 
of  which  the  patentees  do  not  expend  one  farthing. — 
Monopolies  are  odious  in  all  countries,  but 
more  particularly  in  a  government  like  ours. — I  do 
not  doubt  the  power  of  Congress  to  grant  these  ex- 
clusive privileges,  for  the  Constitution  has  vested 
them  with  it,  but  in  all  cases  where  they  become  in- 
jurious to  the  community,  they  ought  to  be  sup- 
pressed, or  the  parties  paid  a  moderate  compensa- 
tion for  the  discoveries  from  the  Government  grant- 
ing the  patent." 

Governor  Jackson  then  proposes  that  the  two 
Carolinas  and  Tennessee  should  be  invited  to  join 
Georgia  in  legislation  to  relieve  the  cotton  States 
from  oppression  and  at  the   same   time  provide 


ELI  WHITNEY  VS.  HODGEN  HOLMES     165 

fair  remuneration  for  Eli  Whitney.  Notwith- 
standing Whitney's  firm  opposition,  this  object  was 
finally  accomplished  in  all  of  these  States  except 
Georgia,  where  Whitney's  aggressive  litigation  in- 
terfered with  satisfactory  adjustment.  It  can  be 
shown  beyond  question  that  he  received  in  royalties 
$50,000  from  South  Carolina,  at  least  $30,000  from 
North  Carolina,  and  about  $10,000  from  Tennessee, 
making  a  total  of  $90,000. 

The  inventor  was  so  vexed  by  his  law  suits,  how- 
ever, that  he  never  could  do  justice  to  the  South. 
During  the  course  of  a  letter  written  in  1803  to  Judge 
Josiah  Stebbins  (wherein  he  urges  his  friend  to  en- 
deavor to  remember  that  he  had  contemplated  the 
use  of  saws  from  the  beginning!)  Whitney  exclaims 
with  some  heat :  *  *  I  have  a  set  of  the  most  Depraved 
villains  to  combat  and  I  might  almost  as  well  go  to 
Hell  in  search  of  Happiness  as  apply  to  a  Georgia- 
Court  for  Justice." 

While  there  can  be  no  doubt,  from  the  record,  that 
Whitney  was  frequently  the  victim  of  grave  injustice, 
it  cannot  be  doubted  on  the  other  hand  that  he 
courted  antagonism.  It  seems  to  be  equally  clear 
that  Hodgen  Holmes  deserves  a  credit  for  the  saw 
gin,  in  use  to  this  day,  which  he  is  likely  never  to  re- 
ceive. All  of  the  reference  books  attribute  the  saw 
gin  to  Whitney,  and  charge  the  South  with  unfair- 
ness. As  a  matter  of  fact,  not  only  did  he  receive 
$90,000  from  three  States  in  addition  to  large  private 
profits,  but  the  courthouse  in  the  very  city  where 
Hodgen  Holmes  lived  contains  a  public  tablet  in 
commemoration  of  Eli  Whitney's  fame,  and  one  of 
the  most  ardent  tributes  ever  paid  to  his  genius 
came  from  the  lips  of  Judge  Johnson  in  Georgia, 
during  the  trial  in  which  Arthur  Fort  endeavored 


166        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

to  push  Holmes's  patent  too  far,  by  claiming  the  in- 
validation of  Whitney's  patent  altogether.  A  part 
of  the  decision,  rendered  for  Whitney,  is  well  worth 
reading,  as  its  striking  statements  are  altogether 
true. 

**The  cotton  plant,"  said  Judge  Johnson,  **fur- 
nished  clothing  to  mankind  before  the  age  of  Herod- 
otus. The  green  seed  is  a  species  much  more  pro- 
ductive than  the  black,  and  by  nature  adapted  to  a 
much  greater  variety  of  climate.  But  by  reason  of 
the  strong  adherence  of  the  fiber  to  the  seed,  with- 
out the  aid  of  some  more  powerful  machine  for  sepa- 
rating it,  than  any  formerly  known  among  us,  the 
cultivation  of  it  would  never  have  been  made  an 
object.  The  machine  of  which  Mr.  Whitney  claims 
the  invention,  so  facilitates  the  preparation  of  this 
species  for  use,  that  the  cultivation  of  it  has  sud- 
denly become  an  object  of  infinitely  greater  impor- 
.  tance  than  that  of  the  other  species  ever  can  be. — 
/  With  regard  to  the  utility  of  this  discovery,  the  court 
would  deem  it  a  waste  of  time  to  dwell  long  upon 
this  topic. — From  childhood  to  age  it  has  presented 
to  us  a  lucrative  employment.  Individuals  who  were 
depressed  with  poverty  and  sunk  in  idleness,  have 
suddenly  risen  to  wealth  and  respectability.  Our 
debts  have  been  paid  off.  Our  capitals  have  in- 
creased, and  our  lands  trebled  themselves  in  value. 
We  cannot  express  the  weight  of  the  obligation 
which  the  country  owes  to  this  invention.  The  ex- 
tent of  it  cannot  now  be  seen." 

Speaking  of  Holmes's  improvement,  Judge  John- 
son said :  * '  This  is  certainly  a  meritorious  improve- 
ment in  the  mechanical  process  of  constructing  this 
machine. — Mr.  Whitney  may  not  be  at  liberty  to 
use  Mr.   Holmes's  iron  plate;  but  certainly  Mr. 


ELI  WHITNEY  VS.  HODGEN  HOLMES     167 

Holmes's  improvement  does  not  destroy  Mr.  Whit- 
ney's patent  right." 

Whitney  spent  his  later  years  in  Connecticut,  near 
the  city  of  New  Haven.  Here,  at  the  foot  of  East 
Kock,  he  erected  machinery  for  the  extensive  manu- 
facture of  army  guns,  in  which  he  had  long  been  in- 
terested, and  amassed  a  very  large  fortune.  He  died 
January  8,  1825,  from  an  ailment  which  was  prob- 
ably the  outcome  of  the  long  journeys  he  had  made 
into  Georgia — riding  in  an  open  "sulky"  all  the 
way,  to  prosecute  his  suits  about  the  gin.  The  vil- 
lage of  Whitneyville,  now  a  part  of  Hamden,  was 
named  for  him;  but  his  real  monument  is  the  great 
invention  that  eventually  cost  him  his  life.  It  is 
remarkable  that  this  cotton  machine,  by  giving  rise 
to  the  first  American  monopoly,  involved  New  Eng- 
land and  the  South  in  a  dispute  of  almost  sectional 
proportions,  and  enticed  its  inventor  from  the  quiet 
desk  of  the  scholar  to  become  a  purveyor  to  war- 
fare. The  craftsman  wove,  as  it  proved,  a  tangled 
web ;  and  his  adventures  held  the  seeds  of  prophecy. 


CHAPTER  34 

COTTON  CHANGES  THE  SOUTH 

Numerous  and  rapid  changes  of  various  kinds 
took  place  in  the  South  as  a  result  of  the  new  cotton 
industry.  Ramsay's  History  of  South  Carolina, 
published  in  1809,  throws  light  on  the  nature  of  some 
of  these  changes.  For  example,  cotton  had  by  that 
time  trebled  the  price  of  land  suitable  to  its  growth, 
— *'and  when  the  crop  succeeds  and  the  market  is 
favorable,  the  annual  income  of  those  who  plant  it 
is  double  to  what  it  was  before  the  introduction  of 
cotton."^  Naturally,  the  agriculture  of  the  South 
was  profoundly  affected;  diversified  crops  giving 
way  before  the  growing  dominion  of  **King  Cot- 
ton.'* In  the  year  before  the  gin  was  invented. 
South  Carolina  exported  Indian  corn  to  the  extent 
of  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  bushels ;  but  before 
Ramsay  wrote  his  history  maize  had  become  an 
article  of  import.^  The  cultivation  of  other  export 
crops  speedily  fell  into  decay,  including  tobacco  and 
barley,  flax,  hemp,  and  silk.  The  farmers  of  the  "up 
country,"  who  had  engaged  successfully  in  the  culti- 
vation of  cereals  without  the  use  of  slave  labor  to 
any  appreciable  extent,  now  joined  forces  with  tide- 
water planters  in  the  all  absorbing  interest  of  the 
new  industry,  since  the  gin  had  made  upland  cotton 

1  David  Ramsay,  The  History  of  South  Carolina  from  Its  First 
Settlement  in  1670,  to  the  Year  1808:  Charleston,  1809;  vol.  11, 
p.  214. 

2  The  same,  p.  218. 

168 


COTTON  CHANGES  THE  SOUTH       169 

profitable  as  well  as  the  sea-island  crop ;  and  labor 
conditions  were  so  vitally  affected  that  the  negro 
population  soon  overshadowed  the  white  in  the  ''up- 
country,"  where,  in  1790,  the  whites  had  outnum- 
bered the  blacks  four  to  one. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  economic  change  that 
the  new  industry  effected  in  the  South  after  the  re- 
introduction  of  slavery  was  the  speedy  abandonment 
of  manufactures.  Not  only  was  the  negro  as  un- 
fitted for  mechanical  occupation  as  he  was  deft  in 
the  manipulation  of  cotton,  but  what  was  the  use  of 
nerve-racking  investment  in  elaborate  and  costly  ma- 
chinery when  a  land-owner  could  reap  ten  per  cent 
net  profit  from  a  few  negroes  and  mules  and  a  bushel 
or  two  of  the  magical  cotton  seed?  And  yet  the 
South  had  unusual  manufacturing  facilities,  such  as 
almost  inexhaustible  iron  and  coal  fields  lying  near 
the  shores  of  an  abundant  water  supply,  suitable 
alike  for  power  and  for  easy  transportation.  Be- 
fore the  domination  of  cotton  culture  due  advan- 
tage had  been  taken  of  these  facilities;  the  census 
of  1810  (according  to  Mr.  D.  A.  Tompkins)  ^  show- 
ing that  the  manufactured  products  of  Virginia,  the 
Carolinas  and  Georgia  exceeded  in  variety  and  value 
those  of  all  the  New  England  States,  with  New  York 
thrown  in  for  good  measure,  while  Mr.  Victor  S. 
Clark  ^  has  shown  from  the  same  census  that  more 
homespun  cotton  manufactures  existed  in  Virginia, 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  than  in  the  thirteen 
other  States  and  territories  combined,  more  flax  was 
spun  in  Virginia  than  in  any  other  State,  and 
throughout  the  South  a  general  activity  was  mani- 

8  American  Commerce,  Its  Expansion:  Charlotte,  1900;  pp.  Ill, 
125. 

4  In  The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation;  J.  C.  Ballagh, 
editor:     Richmond,    1910. 


170        COTTON  AS  A  WOKLD  POWEE 

f est  in  these  and  allied  pursuits.  But,  for  the  reason 
already  suggested,  manufacture  soon  fell  into  de- 
cay ;  the  Piedmont  region  being  still  dotted  with  the 
moldering  ruins  of  iron  works  and  other  mills  that 
bear  witness  to  the  overwhelming  power  of  the  new 
agricultural  absorption.  The  soil,  the  climate  and 
the  cheap  labor  were  all  favorable  to  agriculture, 
and  particularly  to  cotton  planting,  says  Mr.  Tomp- 
kins ; ''  and  as  the  people  could  easily  and  comfort- 
ably live  by  this  occupation  alone,  they  did  not  care 
to  engage  in  manufacturing  or  anything  similar. 
All  the  work  was  done  by  slaves,  and  agriculture  was 
the  only  work  for  which  they  were  fitted.  The  capi- 
tal of  the  people  consisted  of  slaves,  and  that  was  a 
form  of  capital  that  could  not  be  invested  except  in 
one  department  of  labor.  One  of  the  chief  reasons 
for  the  peaceable  prosperity  of  the  South  was  the 
freedom  from  agitators  and  struggles  between  labor 
and  capital,  caused  by  conditions  wherein  labor  and 
capital  were  one  and  the  same. 

Ramsay  points  out  the  interesting  fact  that  the 
farmer  without  slaves  engaged  heartily  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  early  cotton  crops,  and  even  attributes 
to  the  novel  pursuit  a  distinctly  moralizing  influence. 
He  says:  **The  cultivation  of  the  former  great 
staples,  particularly  rice  and  indigo,  required  large 
capitals.  They  could  not  be  raised  to  any  consider- 
able purpose  but  by  negroes.  In  this  state  of  things 
poor  white  men  were  of  little  account  otherwise  than 
as  overseers.  There  were  comparatively  few  of 
that  intermediate  and  generally  most  virtuous  class 
which  is  neither  poor  nor  rich.  By  the  introduction 
of  the  new  staple  the  poor  became  of  value,  for  they 
generally  were  or  at  least  might  be  elevated  to  this 

8  History  of  Mecklenburg  County,  as  cited;  p.  100. 


COTTON  CHANGES  THE  SOUTH       171 

middle  grade  of  society.  Land  suitable  for  cotton 
was  easily  attained,  and  in  tracts  of  every  size  either 
to  purchase  or  rent.  The  culture  of  it  entailed  no 
diseases;  might  be  carried  on  profitably  by  indi- 
viduals or  white  families  without  slaves,  and  af- 
forded employment  for  children  whose  labor  was  of 
little  or  no  account  on  rice  or  indigo  plantations. 
The  poor  having  the  means  of  acquiring  property 
without  the  degradation  of  working  with  slaves,  had 
new  and  strong  incitements  to  industry.  From  the 
acquisition  of  property  the  transition  was  easy  to 
that  decent  pride  of  character  which  secures  from  low 
vice,  and  stimulates  to  seek  distinction  by  deserving 
it.  As  they  became  more  easy  in  their  circum- 
stances, they  became  more  orderly  in  their  conduct. 
The  vices  which  grew  out  of  poverty  and  idleness 
were  diminished.  In  estimating  the  value  of  cotton, 
its  capacity  to  excite  industry  among  the  lower 
classes  of  people,  and  to  fill  the  country  with  an  in- 
dependent industrious  yeomanry,  is  of  high  impor- 
tance. It  has  had  a  large  share  in  moralizing  the 
poor  white  people  of  the  country."®  _J 

0  History  of  South  Carolina,  vol.  ii,  pp.  448-449. 


CHAPTER  35 

COTTON   AFFECTS   NEW   ENGLAND^ 

New  England  was  quick  to  improve  the  new 
manufacturing  opportunities  provided  by  the  South- 
ern production  of  cotton.  The  beginning  of  the 
factory  system  had  occurred  in  1786,  under  the  pat- 
ronage of  Hugh  Orr,  of  Bridgewater,  after  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  had  been  made  at  Worcester,  in  1780. 
Tench  Coxe,  always  alert  for  the  encouragement  of 
domestic  manufacture,  and  dissatisfied  with  the 
crude  spinning- jenny  of  Christopher  TuUy  (see 
page  122),  had  contrived  to  secure  brass  models  of 
the  Arkwright  inventions,  which  were  effecting  an 
industrial  revolution  in  England;  but  the  British 
Government  jealously  guarded  the  novel  machinery, 
and,  strictly  enforcing  its  laws  against  the  exporta- 
tion of  models,  seized  Coxe's  trinkets  and  made  way 
with  them;  whereupon  Mr.  Orr  instructed  the  Barr 
brothers,  two  Scotch  employees  familiar  with  the 
English  spinning  system,  to  reproduce  the  British 
devices.  The  result  was  a  series  of  three  machines 
for  carding,  sizing,  and  spinning,  built  at  a  cost  of 
£187,  and  duly  set  up  in  the  Orr  works  at  East 
Bridgewater,  where  they  were  visited  by  thousands. 
The  Massachusetts  legislature  granted  the  Barr 
brothers  a  bounty  of  £200  and  six  tickets  in  the  state 
lottery  "as  a  reward  for  their  ingenuity  in  forming 

1  Chief  authority:  6.  S.  White,  Memoir  of  Samuel  Slater: 
Philadelphia,  1836. 

172 


COTTON  AFFECTS  NEW  ENGLAND  173 

those  machines,  and  for  their  public  spirit  in  making 
them  known  to  the  Commonwealth. ' '  In  the  follow- 
ing year  a  British  sailor,  Thomas  Somers,  secured  a 
grant  of  £20  from  the  legislature,  which  was  deposi- 
ted in  Mr.  Orr's  keeping  for  the  construction  of  an 
Arkwright  water-frame,  duly  set  up  as  "the  State 
Model,"  and  visited,  among  others,  by  the  quaker, 
Moses  Brown,  of  Providence,  who  subsequently  be- 
came the  friend  and  patron  of  Samuel  Slater.  An 
unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  by  Daniel  Anthony 
to  duplicate  the  Arkwright  machinery  at  Providence, 
Almy  A.  Brown  taking  over  the  apparatus,  which 
Slater  was  soon  to  pronounce  worthless. 

The  first  permanent  cotton  factory  of  New  Eng- 
land was  erected  of  brick  on  the  Bass  Eiver  at  Bev- 
erly, Massachusetts,  in  1787-^88,  John  Cabot  and 
Joshua  Fisher  being  the  principal  managers.  George 
Washington,  the  Virginia  weaver,  gives  an  interest- 
ing account  of  this  first  cotton  mill  to  be  built  in  the 
iUnited  States,  in  the  diary  of  his  journey  through 
New  England  in  1789 : 

"In  this  manufactory,  they  have  the  new  invented 
spinning  and  carding  machines.  One  of  the  first 
supplies  the  warp,  and  four  of  the  latter,  one  of 
which  spins  eighty-four  threads  at  a  time  by  one 
person.  The  cotton  is  prepared  for  these  machines 
by  being  first  (lightly)  drawn  to  a  thread  on  the 
common  wheel.  There  is  also  another  machine  for 
doubling  and  twisting  the  threads  for  particular 
cloths ;  this  also  does  many  at  a  time.  For  winding 
the  cotton  from  the  spindles  and  preparing  it  for 
the  warp,  there  is  a  reel  which  expedites  the  work 
greatly.  A  number  of  looms  (fifteen  or  sixteen) 
were  at  work  with  spring  shuttles,  which  do  more 
than  double  work.    In  short,  the  whole  seemed  per- 


174        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

feet  and  the  cotton  stuffs  which  they  turn  out  ex- 
cellent of  their  kind ;  warp  and  filling  both  cotton. ' ' 

Washington  also  visited  the  "Hartford  Woollen 
Manufactory/'  which  had  been  established  in  1788 
by  thirty-one  merchants,  found  it  "going  on  with 
spirit,"  and  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  speech  to 
Congress  wore  a  broadcloth  suit  presented  by  the 
owners  of  the  mill.^  While  neither  this  factory  nor 
the  cotton  mill  at  Beverly  were  commercially  suc- 
cessful, the  New  Englanders  persisted  in  their  deter- 
mination to  be  independently  clothed,  so  that  by  the 
year  1810  nearly  every  township  had  its  carding  and 
fulling  mill.  The  carded  wool  was  delivered  to 
households  for  spinning  and  weaving,  after  which  it 
was  returned  to  the  mill  for  fulling  and  dressing. 
North  says  that  in  Vermont  alone,  in  1810,  1,040,000 
yards  of  cloth  and  flannel  were  woven  by  families 
and  dressed  in  these  mills.* 

Samuel  Slater,  whom  Andrew  Jackson  called  ' '  the 
father  of  American  manufactures,"  found  a  recep- 
tive environment  when  he  came  to  New  England 
from  England  in  1789,  with  models  of  the  Arkwright 
machinery  in  his  brain  only,  and  set  up  his  success- 
ful Pawtucket  factory  the  next  year,  just  in  the  nick 
of  time  for  the  flood  of  "vegetable  wool"  from  the 
South.  Four  years  after  Whitney's  invention  there 
were  four  cotton  factories  in  operation;  five  years 
later  there  were  fifteen,  with  20,000  spindles;  the 
manufacture  leaping  to  four  times  that  number  of 
spindles  by  1811,  and  to  half  a  million  by  the  year 
1815,  employing  $40,000,000  capital,  100,000  work- 
men, and  paying  $15,000,000  in  annual  wages.* 

zBiahop,  as  cited,  vol.  i,  p.  418. 
8  North,  as  cited,  pp.  465-466. 
4  Bishop,  as  cited,  vol.  ii,  p.  214. 


COTTON  AFFECTS  NEW  ENGLAND  175 

The  large  majority  of  these  factories  were  in  New 
England,  where  the  predisposition  of  the  people  was 
furthered  by  investment  in  the  new  industry  of  capi- 
tal released  from  shipping  interests  through  the  re- 
sults of  the  Embargo  and  the  British  blockade.  In 
addition  to  the  huge  Southern  exports  of  raw  cotton, 
which  leaped  to  such  enormous  volume  immediately 
after  the  invention  of  the  gin,  the  South  was  able  also 
to  feed  these  new  mills  of  New  England,  providing 
500  bales  for  domestic  manufacture  in  1800,  doubling 
that  quantity  in  five  years,  bringing  it  up  to  10,000 
bales  by  1810,  and  to  90,000  bales  in  1815,  by  which 
time  the  capital  invested  in  the  combined  cotton  and 
woolen  manufacture  amounted  to  fifty-two  million 
dollars.  The  New  England  cotton  industry  was 
driven  toward  its  climax  of  development  through  the 
introduction  of  the  power-loom  in  1814  by  Francis  C. 
Lowell,  who  for  the  first  time  assembled  in  one  build- 
ing the  several  processes  of  spinning  and  weaving, 
establishing  at  Waltham  *'the  first  complete  factory 
in  the  world." 

Thus  the  Industrial  Revolution  in  England  co- 
operated with  an  unexampled  cotton  production  in 
America  to  bring  about  the  political  revolution  of 
the  United  States.  The  South,  becoming  suddenly 
rich  and  solidified  through  the  sale  to  British  mills 
of  its  huge  slave-produced  crop,  abandoned  manu- 
facture to  become  an  enormous  plantation.  New 
England,  on  the  other  hand,  having  succeeded  at 
last  in  acquiring  possession  of  the  machinery  that 
had  revolutionized  England,  took  enough  of  the  new 
Southern  crop  to  keep  its  spindles  profitably  busy, 
and  led  the  rest  of  the  North  in  the  development 
of  manufacturing  enterprise.    Two  great  sections 


176        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

emerged,  more  and  more  socially  divergent  through 
the  ramifying  influences  of  slavery,  and  with  op- 
posed economic  interests  due  largely  to  the  fact  that 
while  one  section  farmed  a  certain  plant,  the  other 
manufactured  it.  From  these  opposed  interests 
arose  divergent  political  policies,  the  South,  now 
conscious  of  its  strong  solidarity,  alining  itself  on 
the  side  of  free  trade  and  States-rights,  while  the 
manufacturing  North  preferred  protection  and  be- 
came the  defender  of  the  Union.  The  Great  Contro- 
versies that  ensued,  which  were  really  the  intellec- 
tual fighting  out  of  the  war,  were  all  concerned 
with  the  extension  of  national  territory,  which  in- 
volved slavery  simply  because  slavery  was  involved 
in  the  extension  of  cotton  lands.  But  Arachne  had 
overreached  herself.  Enmeshing  as  she  did  four 
million  slaves  in  her  web,  the  human  race  could  not 
look  on  passionless  and  indifferent.  And  so  the 
war  was  fought,  to  prove  that  cotton  is  not  king,  and 
to  suggest  to  the  future  that  instead  of  permitting 
himself  to  become  embroiled  by  economic  forces  in 
destructive  warfare,  man  must  rise  to  an  intelligent 
understanding  and  a  rational  control  of  these  forces, 
and  be  the  master  of  his  own  social  destiny. 


BOOK  IV 

COTTON  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY: 
THE  GREAT  CONTROVERSIES 


CHAPTER  36  ^ 

PBOTECTION   AND  FEEE   TKADE ;   ANOTHER  EEVEESAL 

Singularly  enough,  before  the  development  of 
the  cotton  industry  the  South  had  inclined  toward 
protection,  while  New  England  favored  free  trade. 
Although  the  Virginians,  Jefferson  and  Madison, 
originally  extolled  the  virtues  of  a  free  interchange 
of  commodities,  they  united  in  1793  in  the  advocacy 
of  vigorous  measures  of  protection  directed  against 
England ;  and  so  zealous  a  convert  did  Madison  be- 
come to  Hamilton's  economic  doctrine,  that  in  lay- 
ing before  Congress  the  treaty  of  peace  in  1815  he 
called  attention  to  the  *' unparalleled  maturity"  at- 
tained by  manufactures,  and  "anxiously  recom- 
mended this  source  of  national  independence  and 
wealth  to  the  prompt  and  constant  guardianship  of 
Congress." 

The  Protective  Tariff  of  1816  was  introduced  by 
Lowndes  of  South  Carolina,  and  ably  defended  by 
Calhoun,  who  declared  that  manufactures  produced 
an  interest  strictly  American,  and  **  calculated  to  bind 
the  widely  separated  Republic  more  closely  together, 
greatly  increasing  mutual  dependence  and  inter- 
course." Through  the  signature  of  Madison  this 
Tariff  became  a  law.  In  fact,  the  Southern  cotton 
growers  were  among  the  first  and  chief  beneficiaries 
of  the  original  protective  Act  passed  by  the  very  first 
Congress  in  1789,  through  a  provision  advocated  by 
Tench  Coxe  that  imposed  a  duty  of  three  cents  a 

1  Chief  authority :     0.  L.  Elliott,  as  cited. 

179 


180        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

pound  on  cotton  of  foreign  growth,  which  mann- 
facturers  were  then  importing  from  Brazil  and  the 
West  Indies  instead  of  using  the  sea-island  home 
product.  Only  John  Randolph  of  Virginia  had  the 
penetration  to  discern  that  the  South-fostered  Tariff 
of  1816  would  work  an  economic  hardship  on  the 
South.  **The  agriculturist,"  he  said,  ''has  his 
property,  his  lands,  his  all,  his  household  goods  to 
defend.  Upon  whom  bears  the  duty  on  coarse  wool- 
lens and  linens  and  blankets,  upon  salt  and  all  the 
necessaries  of  life  I  ;Upon  poor  men  and  upon  slave- 
holders!" 

New  England,  represented  by  Daniel  Webster,  op- 
posed the  Protective  Tariff  of  1816.  Goldwin  Smith 
says  that  there  is  nothing  better  on  the  side  of  free 
trade  than  some  of  Webster's  early  speeches.^ 
**This  'favorite  American  policy,'  sir,"  said  Web- 
ster in  Congress,  combating  Clay,  "is  what 
America  has  never  tried,  and  this  odious  foreign 
poKcy  is  what  we  are  told  foreign  states  have  never 
pursued.  Sir,  that  is  the  truest  American  policy 
which  shall  most  usefully  employ  American  capital 
and  American  labor,  and  best  sustain  the  whole  popu- 
lation. With  me  it  is  a  fundamental  axiom  that  is 
interwoven  with  all  my  opinions  that  the  great  inter- 
ests of  the  country  are  united  and  inseparable,  that 
agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures  will 
prosper  together  or  languish  together,  and  that  all 
legislation  is  dangerous  which  proposes  to  benefit 
one  of  these  without  looking  to  consequences  which 
may  fall  on  the  others.  I  know  it  would  be  very  easy 
to  promote  manufactures,  at  least  for  a  time,  but 
probably  only  for  a  short  time.  If  we  might  act  in 
disregard  of  other  interests  we  could  cause  a  sud- 
den transfer  of  capital  and  a  violent  change  in  the 

a  The  United  States,  as  cited,  p.  186. 


PROTECTION  AND  FREE  TRADE      181 

pursuits  of  men.  We  could  exceedingly  benefit  some 
classes  by  these  means ;  what  then  would  become  of 
the  interests  of  others?" 

This  was  in  1816.  When  the  Tariff  enacted  in 
that  year  came  up  for  revision  in  1824  Webster  was 
still  opposed  to  it,  denying  the  necessity  for  in- 
creased protection  to  manufactures,  and  disputing 
its  adequacy,  if  granted,  to  the  relief  of  the  country 
where  distress  prevailed.  But  in  1828,  when  the 
** Tariff  of  Abominations"  was  proposed,  he  frankly 
changed  front;  while  Calhoun  also  had  swung 
squarely  about,  appearing  now  as  a  strenuous  foe  of 
protection.  The  two  powerful  debaters  were  op- 
posed to  each  other,  indeed,  just  as  in  1816 ;  but  now 
each  was  standing  in  the  other's  shoes,  having  com- 
pletely reversed  their  positions,  each  opposing  what 
he  had  formerly  defended,  and  supporting  the  side 
he  had  previously  opposed.  Webster's  own  words 
explain  his  reversal : 

''New  England,  sir,  has  not  been  a  leader  in  this 
policy  (of  protection).  The  opinion  of  New  Eng- 
land up  to  1824  was  founded  in  the  conviction  that, 
on  the  whole,  it  was  wisest  and  best,  both  for  herself 
and  others,  that  manufactures  should  make  haste 
slowly. — WTien,  at  the  commencement  of  the  late 
war,  duties  were  doubled,  we  were  told  that  we 
should  find  a  mitigation  of  the  weight  of  taxation  in 
the  new  aid  and  succor  which  would  be  thus  afforded 
to  our  own  manufacturing  labor.  Like  arguments 
were  urged,  and  prevailed,  but  not  by  the  aid  of  New 
England  votes,  when  the  tariff  was  afterwards  ar- 
ranged, at  the  close  of  the  war  in  1816.  Finally, 
after  a  whole  winter's  deliberation,  the  act  of  1824 
received  the  sanction  of  both  Houses  of  Congress 
and  settled  the  policy  of  the  country.  What,  then, 
was  New  England  to  do? — ^Was  she  to  hold  out 


182        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

forever  against  the  course  of  the  Government, 
and  see  herself  losing  on  one  side,  and  yet  make  no 
effort  to  sustain  herself  on  the  other?  No,  sir. 
Nothing  was  left  to  New  England,  after  the  act  of 
1824,  but  to  conform  herself  to  the  will  of  others. 
Nothing  was  left  to  her,  but  to  consider  that  the  gov- 
ernment had  fixed  and  determined  its  own  policy; 
and  that  policy  was  protection."^ 

Senator  Lodge,  in  his  biography  of  "Webster,  of- 
fers this  comment : — * '  The  speech  which  he  made  on 
this  occasion  is  a  celebrated  one,  but  it  is  so  solely  on 
account  of  the  startling  change  of  position  which  it 
announced. — Opinion  in  New  England  changed  for 
good  and  sufficient  business  reasons,  and  Mr.  Web- 
ster changed  with  it.  Free  trade  had  conunended 
itself  to  him  as  an  abstract  principle,  and  he  had 
sustained  and  defended  it  as  in  the  interest  of  com- 
mercial New  England.  But  when  the  weight  of  in- 
terest in  New  England  shifted  from  free  trade  to 
protection  Mr.  Webster  followed  it."* 

Calhoun  was  neither  better  nor  worse.  Both  of 
them  simply  swung  true  to  the  economic  interests  of 
their  respective  constituencies.^ 

8  Writings  and  Speeches:     Boston,  1903. 

*H.  C.  Lodge,  Daniel  Webster:     Boston,  1895;  pp.  165,  167. 

6  Free  trade  became  a  leading  economic  interest  of  the  South  not 
only  because  the  huge  export  business  in  cotton  made  it  desirable  to 
load  the  empty  ships  with  cheap  foreign  supplies  for  the  return 
voyage,  but  also  because  the  need  of  all  kinds  of  manufactured  articles 
was  greatly  intensified  by  the  decline  of  Southern  manufacture  due 
to  absorption  in  cotton  cultivation  (see  pp.  169-170).  As  Ashley 
says,  Southern  political  leaders  began  about  this  time  to  be  con- 
vinced that  the  policy  of  protection  was  undermining  the  interests  of 
the  South,  while  building  up  those  of  the  North  at  the  expense  of 
the  slave  States.  High  tariffs,  they  said,  were  valuable  only  for 
manufacturing  districts.  "Naturally,  in  South  Carolina  and  some 
other  States  there  was  a  growing  sentiment  that  the  Constitution 
did  not  give  Congress  the  right  to  pass  a  tariff  which  protected  one 
section  only." — R.  L.  Ashley,  American  History:  New  York,  1914; 
pp.  305-306, 


CHAPTER  37 

NEW  ENGLAND  AND  THE  SOUTH 

The  shifting  of  this  New  England  **  weight  of  in- 
terest" of  which  Senator  Lodge  speaks  was  from 
commerce  and  transportation  to  manufacture.  The 
War  of  1812  had  lamed  the  carrying  power  of  New 
England,  and  forced  her  away  from  shipping  invest- 
ments deeper  and  deeper  into  the  manufacturing 
opportunities  provided  by  English  invention  of  cot- 
ton machinery  on  the  one  hand  and  by  Southern  pro- 
duction of  cotton  on  the  other.  In  1816,  when  Web- 
ster opposed  protection,  there  was  a  capital  of  only 
about  $52,000,000  ^  invested  in  textile  manufacture, 
of  which  much  still  lay  in  the  South.  In  1828,  when 
he  reversed  his  position,  this  capital  had  probably 
doubled,^  and  had  become  localized  in  and  about 
New  England.^  Massachusetts  led  with  260  mills 
and  factories,  representing  an  investment  of  thirty 
million  dollars;  Rhode  Island  followed  with  150 
mills,  employing  thirty  thousand  operatives;  New 
Hampshire  supported  sixty  cotton  mills,  300  tanner- 
ies, 200  bark  factories,  and  ten  paper  mills;  Ver- 
mont manufactured  copper,  iron,  and  wool;  New 
York  was  engaged  in  diversified  industries,  while 
New  Jersey  had  gone  largely  into  the  cotton  and 
wool  manufacture,  and  in  one  county  of  Pennsyl- 

1  Bishop,  as  cited,  ii,  214. 

2  Bishop,  ii,  357,  360;  and  J.  B.  McMaster,  in  Cambridge  Modem 
History,  vii,  375. 

sBogart,  as  cited,  p.  149. 

183 


184        COTTON  AS  A  WOBLD  POWER 

vania  there  were  157  mills  and  factories,  with  4,000 
weavers  earning  a  livelihood  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia alone.* 

If  we  anticipate  a  little,  we  find  that  by  the  year 
1830  the  United  States  was  second  only  to  Eng- 
land in  the  amount  of  cotton  consumed  in  manu- 
facture, while  the  constantly  increasing  localiza- 
tion of  this  industry  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  by 
the  year  1840  three-fourths  of  all  American  cotton 
goods  were  produced  by  New  England  mills.^ 

These  figures  indicate  an  immense  change  from 
the  census  of  1810,  which  showed  the  South  to  be  the 
leading  manufacturing  section  of  the  country  (see 
page  169).  But  while  Southern  manufactures  had 
declined,  agriculture,  denoting  preeminently  the 
cultivation  of  cotton,  had  made  progress  no  less 
amazing  than  the  advance  of  New  England  manu- 
facture. Figures  showing  the  economic  position  of 
the  South  at  the  time  of  the  great  Tariff  struggle 
are  strikingly  displayed  in  Wilson's  valuable  work 
entitled  "Division  and  Reunion."  Of  the  total 
value  of  exports  of  all  kinds  from  the  United  States 
in  1829,  amounting  to  $55,700,193,  the  South  fur- 
nished $34,072,655  in  cotton,  tobacco,  and  rice. 
The  contribution  of  the  South  appears  still  more 
striking  if  it  be  compared  with  the  total  value  of  the 
agricultural  exports  only,  which  was  a  little  under 
$44,000,000.  Three-fourths  of  the  agricultural  ex- 
ports of  the  country,  in  short,  came  from  the  South ; 
and  very  nearly  three-fifths  of  all  the  exports.  The 
value  of  the  exports  of  manufactured  articles 
reached  only  about  $6,000,000.  High  duties  on 
hemp  and  flax,  on  wool,  on  lead  and  iron,  meant  that 
those  who  contributed  most  to  the  external  com- 
^McMaster,  as  just  cited.  sBogart,  as  cited,  p.  149. 


NEW  ENGLAND  AND  THE  SOUTH  185 

merce  of  the  country  were  to  have  their  markets  re- 
stricted for  the  benefit  of  those  who  contributed  very 
little.  The  total  value  of  the  exports  of  cotton  was 
$26,575,311;  that  of  cotton  manufactured  goods  ex- 
ported, only  $1,258,000.  It  seemed  evident  that  the 
South  was  to  suffer  almost  in  direct  proportion  as 
other  sections  of  the  country  gained  advantage  from 
tariff  legislation.^  Being  inhibited  from  domestic 
manufacture  by  the  incapacity  of  her  labor  supply, 
as  well  as  by  the  more  lucrative  opportunities  of 
agriculture,  the  South  faced  the  double  disaster, 
should  the  ** Tariff  of  Abominations'*  be  enacted,  of 
the  further  restraint  of  that  foreign  trade  on  which 
her  prosperity  depended,  and  of  taxation  for  the 
benefit  of  New  England  by  precisely  the  amount  of 
the  duty  rates. 

McMaster  says:  *'The  real  purpose  of  the  pro- 
posed tariff  was  to  force  capital  into  channels  in 
which  it  could  not  naturally  flow,  and  to  produce  a 
ruinous  change  in  the  pursuits  of  the  Southern  peo- 
ple.— Of  the  600,000  bales  of  cotton  sold  annually, 
two-thirds  were  sent  to  foreign  countries,  which  sent 
in  return  almost  every  manufactured  article  used  in 
the  South.  The  duties  contemplated  would  there- 
fore fall  with  especial  severity  on  the  South,  and 
were  in  the  nature  of  a  tax  on  the  industry  of  one 
part  of  the  country  for  the  benefit  of  the  manu- 
factures of  another."  "^ 

The  bill  of  1828  originated  in  the  agitation  of  the 
woolen  manufacturers  of  New  England,  being  chiefly 
designed  to  favor  that  branch  of  industry,  and  sug- 
gesting on  a  small  scale  the  political  struggle  occa- 
sioned by  the  two  rival  fibers  in  England  (See  Book 

«  Wilson,  as  cited,  p.  50. 

7  Cambridge  Modern  History,  vii,  376. 


186        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

n).  It  was  called  the  ** Tariff  of  Abominations,'* 
says  W.  G.  Sumner,  **on  account  of  the  number  of 
especially  monstrous  provisions  which  it  con- 
tained."® McMaster,  in  fact,  says  that  the  bill  was 
reported  with  the  expectation  that  it  never  would 
pass.  **  Indeed,  it  was  carefully  prepared  to  invite 
defeat,  for  in  1828  a  President  was  to  be  elected ;  and 
each  party,  fearing  to  pass  the  bill,  sought  to  throw 
the  odium  of  defeat  on  the  other.  But  the  bill,  with 
all  its  excessive  duties  on  raw  materials  and  im- 
ported manufactures,  passed  both  Houses  of  Con- 
gress, and  was  accepted  by  the  President."  ^  John 
Randolph  caustically  remarked  that  it  *' referred  to 
manufactures  of  no  sort  or  kind  except  the  manu- 
facture of  a  President  of  the  United  States."  ^^ 

8  Andrew  Jackson  as  a  Public  Man:     Boston,  1883;  ch,  ix;  cited 
by  Larned,  iv,  3071. 

8  Cambridge  Modern  History,  vii,  377. 

10  A.  B.  Hart,  Formation  of  the  Union:     New  York,  1909;  p.  258. 


CHAPTER  38 

COTTON   EXPORTS  AND  THE   TAEIFF 

South  Caeolina,  as  Wilson  points  out,  was  en- 
titled to  be  spokesman  for  the  South  in  opposition  to 
the  "Tariff  of  Abominations,"  her  exports  at  this 
period  reaching  the  sum  of  $8,175,586, — ^figures  ex- 
ceeded only  by  the  values  of  New  York  and  Louisi- 
ana, and,  by  a  few  thousands,  by  those  of  Massa- 
chusetts.^ Anti-tariff  meetings  were  at  once  held 
throughout  the  South,  and  the  ships  in  Charleston 
harbor  flew  their  flags  at  half  mast.  Senator  Hayne 
informed  the  Charleston  Chamber  of  Commerce 
'Hhat  the  rich  manufacturers  of  the  North  origi- 
nated the  bill,  in  order  that  they  might  secure  a 
monopoly  of  the  home  market  and  enhance  their 
profits;  and  that  nothing  but  a  firm  remonstrance 
from  the  planting  States  could  prevent  the  ruin 
of  the  South."  Whereupon  the  Charleston  Cham- 
ber sent  to  Congress  a  remonstrance  denouncing 
the  proposed  tariff  as  "unjust  and  unconstitu- 
tional." 

"Have  you,"  asked  another  memorial,  "ascer- 
tained beyond  the  possibility  of  deception  how  far 
the  patience  of  the  people  of  the  South  exceeds  their 
indignation,  and  at  what  precise  point  resistance 
may  begin  and  submission  end?"  ^ 

1  Division  and  Reunion,  p.  50. 

2  Cambridge  Modern  History,  vii,  pp.  376-378. 

187 


188        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  ROWER 

Governor  Hamilton,  in  response  to  numerous  peti- 
tions, appointed  a  day  of  fasting,  humiliation,  and 
prayer.  How  tensely  the  sectional  lines  were  drawn 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  the  presidential  election 
which  now  took  place,  in  all  the  States  south  of  the 
Potomac  River  Adams  failed  to  receive  a  single  elec- 
toral vote,  while  throughout  New  England  Jackson 
received  but  one.  The  election  of  Jackson  was  ac- 
claimed by  the  South,  whose  spokesman  in  the  per- 
son of  John  C.  Calhoun  now  advanced  the  argument 
known  as  the  South  Carolina  Exposition,  declaring 
the  tariff  laws  of  1828  to  be  unconstitutional,  op- 
pressive, and  unequal,  and  calling  a  state  conven- 
tion in  order  to  * '  decide  in  what  manner  they  ought 
to  be  declared  null  and  void  within  the  limits  of  the 
State,  which  solemn  declaration  would  be  obligatory 
on  our  own  citizens." 

This  document  set  forth  the  declaration  that  there 
was  a  permanent  dissimilarity  between  the  South 
and  the  rest  of  the  Union,  since  the  Southern  States 
were  *' staple  States,"  exclusively  devoted  to  agri- 
culture, and  destined  always  to  remain  so  because  of 
their  ''soil,  climate,  habits,  and  peculiar  labor," 
whose  advantage  could  never  coincide  with  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  majority  of  the  States  in  respect  of 
the  commercial  policy  of  the  country.  The  Federal 
Constitution  being  a  ''compact,"  it  is  within  the 
power  of  a  minority  State  to  veto  the  legislation  in 
question,  and  suspend  its  operation.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  inexpedient  to  adopt  measures  of  suspension  at 
once;  time  should  be  allowed  for  "further  considera- 
tion and  reflection,  in  the  hope  that  a  returning  sense 
of  justice  on  the  part  of  the  majority,  when  they 
came  to  reflect  on  the  wrongs  which  this  and  the 
other  staple  States  have  suffered  and  are  suffering, 


COTTON  EXPORTS  AND  THE  TARIFF     189 

may  repeal  the  obnoxious  and  unconstitutional  Acts, 
and  thereby  prevent  the  necessity  of  interposing  the 
veto  of  the  State."  3 

In  the  same  year  (1828)  Georgia  instructed  her 
governor,  should  the  tariff  law  not  be  repealed,  to 
appoint  delegates  to  a  convention  of  the  Southern 
States  in  order  **to  deliberate  upon  and  devise  a 
suitable  mode  of  resistance  to  that  imjust,  uncon- 
stitutional, and  oppressive  law,"  while  Mississippi 
and  Virginia  adopted  similar  measures.* 

To  such  a  pitch  had  the  sectional-economic  con- 
troversy mounted ;  and,  following  as  it  did  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  of  1820,  this  tariff  agitation  de- 
veloped swiftly  into  the  great  debates  that  found 
their  ultimate  determination  in  civil  war.  The 
South,  instead  of  being  foremost  for  the  Union  as  at 
the  time  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  was  now 
becoming  the  lusty  exponent  of  States-rights,  al- 
though Calhoun  was  not  yet  prepared  to  go  as  far  as 
Josiah  Quincy  went  (see  page  194)  in  pressing  this 
point  to  its  issue. 

General  Jackson  proved  a  strong  friend  of  the 
Union,  and  paid  little  heed  to  the  logic  or  per- 
suasiveness of  his  colleague,  Vice-President  Cal- 
houn. When,  shortly  after  his  inauguration,  a 
representative  from  South  Carolina,  in  calling  on 
Jackson,  asked  whether  he  had  any  commands  for 
his  friends  in  South  Carolina, 

*'Yes,  I  have,"  he  replied;  "please  give  my  com- 
pliments to  my  friends  in  your  State,  and  say  to 
them  that  if  a  single  drop  of  blood  shall  be  shed 
there  in  opposition  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States, 
I  will  hang  the  first  man  I  can  lay  my  hand  on  en- 

3  Wilson,  Division  and  Reunion,  p.  57. 

*  Cambridge  Modern  History,  vii,  pp.  380-381. 


190        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

gaged  in  such  treasonable  conduct,  upon  the  first  tree 
I  can  reach.'* ^ 

Later,  he  denounced  Nullification  as  **  incom- 
patible with  the  existence  of  the  Union"  and  called 
on  the  South  Carolinians  to  yield. — ^*'The  laws  of 
the  United  States  must  be  executed.  I  have  no 
discretionary  power  on  the  subject, — ^my  duty  is 
emphatically  pronounced  in  the  Constitution. 
Those  who  have  told  you  that  you  might  peacefully 
prevent  their  execution  deceived  you. — Their  ob- 
ject is  disunion,  and  disunion  by  armed  force  is 
treason. ' '  ^ 

In  1832  Congress  undertook  to  return  substan- 
tially to  the  Tariff  of  1824.  But  before  this  action 
of  Congress  could  become  effective,  and  after  the 
threatening  exchange  of  wrathful  proclamations 
and  counter-proclamations  between  Jackson  and 
Governor  Hayne,  Clay  succeeded  (1833)  in  the  pas- 
sage of  a  compromise  measure,  based  on  a  hori- 
zontal rate,  which  placated  South  Carolina  while  it 
** saved  the  protective  principle"  and  maintained 
the  rights  of  the  Union.  The  Force  Bill  of  Jack- 
son, intended  for  the  execution  of  the  former  ob- 
noxious tariff  laws  by  military  power,  if  necessary, 
now  became  a  dead  letter:  whereupon  South  Caro- 
lina repealed  her  ordinance  nullifying  the  tariff 
laws,  but  at  the  same  time  "saved  the  principle"  of 
States-rights  by  passing  another  ordinance  nulli- 
fying the  moribund  Force  Bill ! 

It  seems  already  quite  evident  that  even  the  deft 
compromises  of  the  highly  ingenious  Clay  cannot 
long  weave  together  the  raveling  threads  of  a  Union 
between  two  sections  whose  main  object  in  the  yield- 

■  Division  and  Reunion,  p.  172. 
0  Division  and  Reunion,  p.  61. 


COTTON  EXPORTS  AND  THE  TARIFF     191 

ing  of  policy  is  the  salvation  of  contradictory  prin- 
ciples. 

Note.  The  extent  to  which  cotton  now  dominated  the  commerce 
of  the  South  may  be  gathered  from  the  humorous  "impressions 
of  a  traveler"  printed  in  the  Courier  of  Augusta,  Ga.,  Oct.  11, 
1827: 

"A  plague  o'  this  Cotton. 

"When  I  took  my  last  walk  along  the  wharves  in  Charleston, 
and  saw  them  piled  up  with  mountains  of  Cotton,  and  all  your  stores, 
ships,  steam  and  canal  boats  crammed  with  and  groaning  imder,  the 
weight  of  Cotton,  I  returned  to  the  Planters'  Hotel,  where  I  foimd 
the  four  daily  papers,  as  well  as  the  conversation  of  the  boarders, 
teeming  with  Cotton!  Cotton!!  Cotton!!!  Thinks  I  to  myself,  'I'll 
soon  change  this  scene  of  cotton.'  But,  alas!  How  easily  deceived 
is  short-sighted  man!  Well,  I  got  into  my  gig  and  wormed  my 
way  up  through  Queen,  Meeting,  King  and  St.  Philip's  streets, 
dodging  from  side  to  side,  to  steer  clear  of  the  Cotton  waggons,  and 
came  to  the  New  Bridge  Ferry.  Here  I  crossed  over  in  the  Horse- 
boat,  with  several  empty  cotton  waggons,  and  found  a  number  on 
the  other  side,  loaded  with  cotton,  going  to  town.  From  this  I 
continued  on,  meeting  with  little  else  than  cotton  fields,  cotton 
gins,  cotton  waggons — but  'the  wide,  the  unbounded  prospect  lay 
before  me!'  I  arrived  in  Augusta;  and  when  I  saw  cotton-waggons 
in  Broad-street,  I  whistled!  but  said  nothing!!!  But  this  was 
not  all;  there  was  more  than  a  dozen  tow  boats  in  the  river,  with 
more  than  a  thousand  bales  of  cotton  on  each;  and  several  steam- 
boats with  still  more.  And  you  must  know,  that  they  have  cotton 
warehouses  there  covering  whole  squares,  all  full  of  cotton;  and 
some  of  the  knowing  ones  told  me,  that  there  were  then  in  the 
place  from  40,000  to  50,000  bales.  And  Hamburg  (as  a  negro  said) 
was  worser,  according  to  its  size;  for  it  puzzled  me  to  tell  which 
was  the  largest,  the  piles  of  cotton  or  the  houses.  I  now  left 
Augusta;  and  overtook  hordes  of  cotton  planters  from  North  Caro- 
lina, South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  with  large  gangs  of  negroes, 
bound  to  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana;  'where  the  cotton 
land  is  not  worn  out.' — I  crossed  over  to  Mobile  in  a  small  steam 
boat  loaded  up  to  the  top  of  the  smoke-pipe  with  cotton.  This  place 
is  a  receptacle  monstrous  for  the  article.  Look  which  way  you  will 
you  see  it;  and  see  it  moving;  keel  boats,  steam  boats,  ships,  brigs, 
schooners,  wharves,  stores,  and  press-houses,  all  appeared  to  be  full; 
and  I  believe  that  in  the  three  days  that  I  was  there,  boarding  with 
about  one  hundred  cotton  factors,  cotton  merchants,  and  cotton 
planters,  I  must  have  heard  the  word  cotton  pronounced  more  than 
3,000  times. 

"From  Mobile  I  went  to  New  Orleans  in  a  schooner,  and  she 
was  stuffed  full  of  cotton. — ^I  don't  know  how  many  hundred  thou- 
sand bales  of  cotton  there  were  in  New  Orleans;  but  I  was  there 
only  six  days,  in  which  time  there  arrived  upwards  of  20,000  bales, — 
and  when  we  dropped  out  into  the  stream  in  a  steam-boat,  to  ascend 
the  river,  the  levee  for  a  mile  up  and  down,  opposite  the  shipping. 


192        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

where  they  were  walking  bales  on  end,  looked  as  if  it  was  alive. — 
From  New  Orleans  to  the  mouth  of  Tennessee  River,  we  passed 
about  thirty  steam-boats,  and  more  than  half  of  them  laden  with 
cotton. — I  passed  to  Nashville;  and  on  my  way  saw  an  abundance 
of  cotton  and  cottonfields. — They  calculate  on  40  or  50,000  bales 
of  cotton  going  from  Nashville  this  season. — After  seeing,  hearing, 
and  dreaming  of  nothing  but  cotton  for  seventy  days  and  seventy 
nights,  I  began  to  anticipate  relief.  For,  on  the  route  I  took, 
whether  by  night  or  by  day  or  by  stage  or  by  steam  boat,  wake  up 
when  or  where  you  would,  you  were  sure  to  hear  a  dissertation  on 
cotton." — Oited  in  Documentary  History   (as  cited),  pp.  283-288. 


CHAPTER  39 

THE   CONSTITUTIONAL.  DILEMMA  f 

The  fact  that  the  Constitution  was  a  complex  of 
compromises  ^  had  begun  to  bear  fruit  very  soon 
after  its  adoption.  The  great  instrument  offered 
plenty  of  handles  for  disgruntled  statesmen  or 
States  that  might  wish  to  assert  individual  liberty 
against  the  prerogatives  of  Union.  Madison,  in 
spite  of  his  firm  stand  for  the  rights  of  the  Union  in 
the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787  joined  with 
Jefferson  in  1798  in  the  preparation  of  Resolutions 
aimed  at  Federalist  policies.  These  Resolutions  not 
only  formulated  the  *' compact"  theory  of  govern- 
ment, afterwards  developed  by  Calhoun  and  enun- 
ciated also  by  Hayne,  but  even  anticipated  Cal- 
houn's doctrine  of  Nullification.  Declaring  the  Con- 
stitution to  be  a  compact  to  which  the  States  were 
parties,  and  that  "each  party  has  an  equal  right  to 
judge  for  itself  as  well  of  infractions  as  of  the  mode 
and  measure  of  redress,"  they  denounced  certain 
statutes  as  ''not  law — void  and  of  no  effect;"  while 
the  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1799,  prepared  by  Jef- 
ferson, asserted  that  "the  several  States  who  formed 
the  Constitution,  being  sovereign,  independent,  have 
the  unquestionable  right  to  judge  its  infractions; 
and  a  nullification  by  those  sovereigns  of  aU  un- 

t  See  also  chapters  51-54. 

iSee  Alexander  Johnston,  American  Political  History,  1763-1876: 
New  York,  1912;  vol.  ii,  pp.  101  S,  337. 

193 


194        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

authorized  acts  done  under  color  of  that  instrument, 
is  the  rightful  remedy. ' '  ^ 

But  Nullification  and  Secession  had  not  at  that 
early  time  become  a  localized  doctrine;  New  Eng- 
land, when  the  need  arose,  did  not  hesitate  to  con- 
jure their  spectral  wraith  from  the  vasty  deeps 
of  the  Constitutional  oracle.  As  spokesman  for 
Massachusetts  in  opposing  the  admission  of  Louisi- 
ana in  1811  Josiah  Quincy  said  in  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives :  *'I  am  compelled  to  declare  it  as 
my  deliberate  opinion,  that,  if  this  bill  passes,  the 
bonds  of  this  union  are,  virtually,  dissolved;  that 
the  States  which  compose  it  are  free  from  their 
moral  obligations,  and  that  as  it  will  be  the  right  of 
all,  so  it  will  be  the  duty  of  some,  to  prepare,  defi- 
nitely, for  a  separation:  amicably,  if  they  can;  vio- 
lently, if  they  must. ' '  ^ 

Just  as  there  is  no  indication  that  the  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  Eesolutions  were  deemed  treasonable 
when  they  were  passed,  or  that  they  even  seem  to 
have  shocked  the  public  feeling  of  the  day,  so  on 
this  occasion  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  saw 
nothing  in  Quincy 's  speech  to  warrant  a  reprimand. 
Two  years  later  (1813)  when  Massachusetts  was  op- 
posing the  war  with  England,  Quincy  became  spokes- 
man before  the  state  legislature  to  the  effect  that 
*'it  is  not  becoming  a  moral  and  religious  people  to 
express  any  approbation  of  military  or  moral  ex- 
ploits which  are  not  immediately  connected  with  the 
defense  of  our  sea-coast  and  soil;"  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  Massachusetts  legislature  received 
a  report  which  adopted  almost  literally  the  word- 

2  See  Hart's  Formation  of  the  Union,  p.  171. 
8  Alexander  Johnston,  American  Orations ;    Studies  in  American 
Political  History:     New  York,  1906;  vol.  i,  p.  182. 


THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  DILEMMA     195 

ing  of  Madison's  Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798. — 
**  Whenever  the  national  compact  is  violated,  and  the 
citizens  of  the  State  oppressed  by  cruel  and  un- 
authorized laws,  this  legislature  is  bound  to  inter- 
pose its  power  and  wrest  from  the  oppressor  his 
victim. ' '  ^ 

Hart  says  that  in  1814  **the  time  seemed  to  have 
arrived  when  the  protests  of  New  England  against 
the  continuance  of  the  war  might  be  made  effective. 
The  initiative  was  taken  by  Massachusetts,  which, 
on  October  16,  voted  to  raise  a  million  dollars  to 
support  a  state  army  of  10,000  troops,  and  to  ask  the 
other  New  England  States  to  meet  in  convention."® 

This  Hartford  Convention  in  its  formal  report  de- 
clared that  the  Constitution  had  been  violated  and 
that  *  *  States  which  have  no  common  umpire  must  be 
their  own  judges  and  execute  their  own  decisions." 
''Behind  the  whole  document,"  says  Hart,  *'was  the 
implied  intention  to  withdraw  from  the  Union"  if 
Congress  refused  to  meet  the  New  England  de- 
mands. No  one  knows  what  would  have  happened 
had  not  the  deputies  who  were  to  present  this  vir- 
tual ultimatum  to  Congress  been  checked  by  the  dec- 
laration of  peace. 

Discussing  the  subject  of  state  sovereignty  and 
the  right  of  secession,  Goldwin  Smith  ^  has  aptly 
said:  **The  Constitution  was  on  this  point  a  Del- 
phic oracle.  Its  framers  had  blinked  the  question 
of  state  sovereignty,  as  they  had  compromised  on 
that  of  slavery.  They  trusted  to  time,  and  had 
slavery  been  out  of  the  way,  time  would  have  done 
the  work."    It  is  easy  to  understand  the  alarm  of 

4  Cited  in  Hart's  Formation  of  the  Union,  p.  216. 

5  Hart,  as  just  cited,  p.  217. 

6  As  cited,  p.  248. 


196        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

the  aged  Jefferson  when  the  silenced  question  of 
slavery  suddenly  became  politically  clamorous  in 
1820,  disturbing  the  peace  of  Monroe's  administra- 
tion, as  Jefferson  said,  "like  a  fire-bell  in  the  night." 
In  a  letter  to  John  Holmes,  dated  April  22,  1820,  he 
wrote : 

**I  had  for  a  long  time  ceased  to  read  newspapers, 
or  pay  any  attention  to  public  affairs,  confident 
they  were  in  good  hands,  and  content  to  be  a  pas- 
senger in  our  bark  to  the  shore  from  which  I  am  not 
distant.  But  this  momentous  question,  like  a  fire- 
bell  in  the  night,  awakened  and  filled  me  with  terror. 
I  considered  it  at  once  as  the  knell  of  the  Union. — 
A  geographical  line,  coinciding  with  a  marked  prin- 
ciple, moral  and  political,  once  conceived  and  held 
up  to  the  angry  passions  of  men,  will  never  be  ob- 
literated, and  every  new  irritation  will  mark  it 
deeper  and  deeper."  "^ 

T  Cited  by  Elliott,  pp.  234-235,  note. 


CHAPTER  40 

THE  STEUGGLB   FOB  FRESH   COTTON  LANDS 

Whele  the  acquisition  of  the  Louisiana  territory 
in  1803  had  far  more  than  doubled  the  area  of  the 
slave  system,  and  in  fact  more  than  doubled  the  area 
of  the  United  States,  it  evoked  little  controversy  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  as  was  the  case  also  when 
Louisiana  sought  admission  as  a  State  in  1811. 
Josiah  Quincy's  speech  on  the  latter  occasion  seems 
to  have  been  prompted  not  by  antagonism  to  slavery 
so  much  as  by  his  resentment  at  the  prospect  of  mix- 
ing the  "rights  and  liberties  and  property  of  this 
people  into  ^hotch-pot'  with  the  wild  men  on  the 
Missouri"  and  with  the  ''race  of  Anglo-Hispano- 
Gallo  Americans  who  bask  on  the  sands  in  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi."^  Alexander  Johnston,  how- 
ever, is  probably  correct  in  his  statement  that  the 
Congress  of  1803- '05,  which  impliedly  legitimated 
the  domestic  slave  trade  to  Louisiana,  and  legalized 
slavery  wherever  population  should  extend  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  should 
rightfully  bear  the  responsibility  for  all  the  subse- 
quent growth  of  slavery,  and  for  all  the  difficulties 
in  which  it  involved  the  South  and  the  country.^ 

Directly  out  of  this  Act  of  Congress  grew  the 
Missouri  Compromise  of  1820,  the  Compromise  of 
1850,  and  the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 

1  A.  Johnston,  Orations,  as  cited;  i,  198. 

2  The  same,  ii,  8. 

197 


198        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

in  1854,  which,  with  the  Admission  of  Texas  in  1845, 
occasioned  the  series  of  great  Congressional  debates 
that  preceded  the  Civil  War. 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  Congress  of  1803- '05  how- 
ever, to  bear  in  mind  that  at  the  time  of  the  Loui- 
siana acquisition  its  enormous  effect  on  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery  was  not  understood,^  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  availability  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
for  cotton  cultivation  was  not  yet  appreciated.* 
While  some  cotton  had  been  raised  in  the  Louisiana 
territory  before  its  purchase  by  the  United  States, 
this  plant  was  then  regarded  as  the  peculiar  pet  of 
the  uplands,  and  it  was  not  until  during  the 
** twenties"  that  the  discovery  was  made  of  the  rich 
adaptability  of  prairie  lands  and  river  bottoms  to 
the  successful  production  of  cotton  on  an  enormous 
scale.  In  1811  this  region  raised  but  five  million 
pounds  of  cotton;  ten  years  later  its  product  was 
sixty  million  pounds;  and  in  1826  its  fields  were 
white  with  a  crop  of  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lion pounds.''  **By  the  side  of  the  picture  of  the 
advance  of  the  pioneer  farmer,"  says  Turner, 
''must  be  placed  the  picture  of  the  Southern  planter 
crossing  the  forests  of  Western  Georgia,  Alabama, 
and  Mississippi,  or  passing  over  the  free  State  of 
Illinois  to  the  Missouri  Valley,  in  his  family  car- 
riage, with  servants,  packs  of  hunting  dogs,  and  a 
train  of  slaves,  their  nightly  camp-fires  lighting  up 
the  wilderness  where  so  recently  the  Indian  hunter 
had  held  possession."^ 

Freely  the  slaves  were  poured  in  from  the  old 

8  J.   F.   Rhodes,  History  of  the  U.   S.   from  the  Compromise  of 
1850:     New  York,  1906;  i,  28. 
*  Hammond's  Cotton  Industry,  as  cited,  p.  50. 

5  The  Rise  of  the  New  West:     New  York,  1906;  p.  94. 

6  The  same,  p.  92. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  FRESH  COTTON  LANDS  199 

South — 250,000  in  a  single  year — and  by  the  year 
1830  the  Western  country  had  outstripped  the  sea- 
board States  in  the  production  of  cotton.  **Soon 
thereafter  a  capital  of  $55,000,000  was  applied  to 
the  cultivation  of  cotton  lands  in  the  new  States, 
within  three  years;  and  during  that  same  brief 
period  the  output  of  cotton  in  these  States  was  al- 
most doubled. "  W.  B.  Hammond '  thinks  that  the  ex- 
panding geographical  distribution  of  slaves  and  of 
cotton  cultivation  affords  the  most  striking  evidence 
of  the  close  connection  of  the  two  institutions  that  can 
be  had;  the  lines  for  the  gradual  spread  of  slavery 
over  the  map  coinciding  almost  exactly  with  those 
suitable  for  the  extension  of  cotton :  as  if  this  plant- 
king  were  literally  leading  the  human  captives  in  his 
train.  Between  1830  and  1850  the  slave  population 
of  Maryland  decreased  and  that  of  Virginia  re- 
mained stationary,  while,  as  Rhodes  points  out, 
Louisiana  more  than  doubled,  Alabama  nearly 
trebled,  and  Mississippi  almost  quintupled  their 
number  of  slaves.^ 

Naturally,  the  desire  for  new  cotton  lands  had 
much  to  do  with  the  Southern  movement  for  the 
acquisition  of  additional  national  territory,  and  as 
negroes  were  deemed  to  be  absolutely  essential  to 
the  successful  cultivation  of  this  great  money  crop, 
every  Congressional  discussion  about  new  lands  in- 
evitably became  a  slavery  controversy.  The  desire 
of  Southern  planters  for  fresh  lands  was  greatly  in- 
tensified by  the  shiftless  and  unscientific  character 
of  slave  agriculture,  which  resulted,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  cotton  exhausts  the  soil  less  than 
any  other  of  the  great  staples,  in  a  rapid  wearing 

TThe  Cotton  Industry,  p.  59. 
8  As  cited,  i,  315. 


200        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

out  of  the  lands  where  it  was  grown,  without  rota- 
tion, one  year  after  another.  Undoubtedly  this  eco- 
nomic argument  influenced  the  South  in  favoring  the 
admission  of  Texas;  and  probably  the  same  consid- 
eration, in  spite  of  the  rhetorical  denial  of  Toombs, 
was  influential  in  the  movement  for  the  purchase  of 
Cuba,  which  led  Seward  to  his  gruff  remark  in  the 
Senate :  * '  The  Cuba  bill  is  the  question  of  slaves  for 
the  slave-holders."  Rhodes  thinks  that  if  Cuba  had 
been  acquired,  no  doubt  can  exist  that  it  would  have 
been  admitted  into  the  Union  as  one  or  more  slave 
States.» 

However  this  may  be,  there  can  be  no  question 
whatever  that  it  was  the  extension  of  the  national 
territory  that  occasioned  the  increasingly  bitter  de- 
bates centering  around  the  years  1820,  1845,  1850, 
and  1854,  which,  in  their  turn,  brought  about  a 
development  of  increasingly  divergent  political 
theories  on  subjects  of  vital  importance.  The  first 
debate,  which  startled  the  prophetic  vision  of  Jeffer- 
son and  produced  the  "Missouri  Compromise,'*  af- 
forded the  first  clear  demarcation  between  the  two 
sections.  To  clarify  the  Congressional  action  which 
had  accompanied  the  acquisition  of  the  huge  Loui- 
siana country,  a  literal  geographical  and  political 
dividing  line  was  now  drawn  westward  from  the 
southern  boundary  of  Missouri,  admitted  as  a  slave 
State  with  the  proviso  that  in  no  other  part  of  the 
territory  acquired  from  France  in  1803  north  of  36° 
30'  should  there  be  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude. 
The  Northern  States,  although  they  had  not  opposed 
the  admission  of  the  Southern  district  centering 
around  New  Orleans  as  slave  territory  in  1812,  now 
resisted  the  admission  of  the  Northern  district  cen- 

»A8  cited,  ii,  350-352. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  FRESH  COTTON  LANDS  201 

tering  around  St.  Louis  as  the  slave  State  of  Mis- 
souri ;  but  their  resistance  was  countered  by  the  in- 
genuity of  Thomas  of  Illinois  and  the  strategic  ma- 
nipulation of  Clay,  Maine  being  at  the  same  time 
admitted  as  a  free  State  so  as  to  maintain  equilib- 
rium. 

The  maintenance  of  a  geographical  *' balance  of 
power ' '  henceforth  became  a  matter  of  vital  concern 
to  the  South,  which  began  to  recognize  its  profound 
estrangement  from  the  North,  and  the  consequent 
conclusion  that  only  by  an  equalized  Congressional 
representation  could  it  hope  for  the  preservation  of 
its  interests. 

Note.  Professor  Turner,  in  his  Rise  of  the  New  West  (page  47) 
presents  a  valuable  table  which  shows  both  the  enormous  increase 
in  the  cotton  crop  during  the  period  under  consideration,  and  also 
its  extension  into  the  fresh  cotton  lands: 

COTTON  CROP 
(In  million  pounds) 

1791    1801     1811  1821  1826  183i 

South  Carolina    1.5         20.        40.  50.  70.  65.5 

Georgia    5         10.         20.  45.  75.  75. 

Virginia 5.          8.  12.  25.  10. 

North    Carolina    4.           7.  10.  10.  9.5 

Total     2.          S9.        75.  117.  180.  160. 

Tennessee    1.           3.         20.  45.  45. 

Louisiana      2.         10.  38.  62. 

Mississippi      10.  20.  85. 

Alabama    20.  45.  85. 

Florida     2.  20. 

Arkansas    .5  .5 

Total    1.          5.        60.  150.5  297.5 

Grand  Total   2.        40.        80.      177.  330.5  457.5 


CHAPTER  41 

SOUTHEKN   NATIONAT.TSM 

This  recognition  of  sectional  estrangement  from 
the  North  cooperated  with  the  economic  tendency  in 
favor  of  land  expansion  to  produce  a  Southern 
sentiment  toward  nationalism  in  the  direction  of  the 
West.  Cotton  had  much  to  do  with  the  building  of 
the  first  railroad  using  an  American  locomotive  in 
the  regular  service — the  South  Carolina  railway, 
connecting  Charleston  with  the  head  of  navigation 
on  the  Savannah  River  (begun  in  1830,  completed  in 
1833),  for  the  purpose  of  deflecting  the  raw  ma- 
terial from  its  course  down  the  river  to  Savannah, 
and  for  the  further  ambitious  purpose  of  strength- 
ening connections  with  the  West.  The  road  was 
extended  to  Augusta,  then  to  Atlanta  and  Chatta- 
nooga under  the  name  of  the  **  Western  and  At- 
lantic;'* and  finally  the  "Charleston  and  Memphis" 
was  built  from  Chattanooga  to  Memphis,  whereupon 
a  through  train  was  run  over  the  entire  line,  carry- 
ing a  company  of  Memphis  and  Charleston  citizens 
and  also  a  barrel  of  water  from  the  Mississippi 
River,  which  was  emptied  into  the  bay  of  Charleston 
to  symbolize  the  future  connections  of  commerce.^ 
General  Hayne,  the  great  colleague  of  Calhoun  and 
antagonist  of  Webster,  was  deeply  interested  in  pro- 
moting the  construction  of  a  through  line  from 
Charleston  to  Cincinnati,  with  the  expectation  that 

1  Tompkins,  American  Commerce,  as  cited,  pp.  113-114. 

202 


SOUTHERN  NATIONALISM  203 

by  deflecting  the  immense  tide  of  export  commerce 
from  Pittsburgh  and  the  Middle  West  down  the 
Ohio  to  Cincinnati  and  thence  by  rail  to  Charleston, 
this  port  could  be  lifted  from  its  already  notable 
standing  among  American  cities  to  a  position  second 
to  none. 

While  this  Cincinnati  project  has  only  succeeded 
within  recent  years,  a  great  Western  traffic  was  built 
up  by  the  early  railroads,  which  stimulated  the  ex- 
tension of  cotton  culture  and  in  return  reduced  the 
cost  of  Southern  living  through  a  plentiful  supply 
of  Western  **hog  and  hominy.'*  From  1845  to  1860 
the  South  built  more  miles  of  railroad  than  the  New 
England  and  Middle  States  together,  and  expended 
over  $60,000,000  on  mills  and  factories.  In  Alabama 
there  was  **a  sort  of  frenzy"  over  railroads  in  the 
middle  of  the  'fifties. 

Water  traffic  also  developed.  In  the  lower  South, 
as  Brown  says,  the  steamboats,  plying  all  the  navi- 
gable rivers,  enlivening  the  forests  with  their  steam 
calliopes,  and  brightening  the  lowlands  at  night  with 
their  brilhant  cabin  lights,  were  the  chief  repre- 
sentatives of  modern  methods  of  transportation. 
Cotton  was  hauled  from  the  plantation  to  the  near- 
est river  bluff,  the  bales  went  sliding  down  an  in- 
cline to  the  waiting  steamboat,  and  so  passed  on 
to  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  Boston,  Liverpool.  The 
planter  perhaps  followed  his  crop  as  far  as  Mobile 
or  New  Orleans,  made  a  settlement  with  his  agent, 
enjoyed  his  annual  outing,  and  returned  with  his 
supplies  for  another  year,  not  neglecting  a  proper 
provision  for  the  fortnight's  feasting  and  jollity  at 
the    approaching    Christmastide.^    As    for    South 

2W.  G.  Brown,  The  Lower  South  in  American  History:  New 
York,  1902;  pp.  36-37. 


204        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

Carolina  and  the  West,  so  early  as  1826  there  were 
ten  steamboats  plying  between  Charleston  and  the 
towns  of  Columbia,  Cheraw,  Georgetown,  Hamburg, 
Augusta,  and  Savannah,  having  an  average  capacity 
of  six  hundred  cotton  bales,  thus  extending  the 
facilities  of  the  railroads  and  tending  to  make  the 
South  independent  of  the  North  Atlantic  States  by  a 
system  of  free  trade  with  the  West. 

Wilson  writes  of  this  period  with  keen  insight: 
"Southern  politicians,  indeed,  were  busy  debating 
sectional  issues;  but  Southern  merchants  presently 
fell  to  holding  conventions  in  the  interest  of  the  new 
industrial  development.  These  conventions  spoke 
very  heartily  the  language  of  nationality;  they 
planned  railways  to  the  Pacific;  they  invited  the  co- 
operation of  the  Western  States  in  devising  means 
for  linking  the  two  sections  industrially  together; 
they  hoped  to  be  able  to  run  upon  an  equality  with 
the  other  sections  of  the  country  in  the  race  for  in- 
dustrial wealth.  But  in  all  that  they  said  there  was 
an  undertone  of  disappointment  and  of  apprehen- 
sion. They  wished  to  take  part,  but  could  not,  in 
what  was  going  forward  in  the  rest  of  the  country. 
They  spoke  hopefully  of  national  enterprise,  but  it 
was  evident  that  the  nation  of  which  they  were  think- 
ing when  they  spoke  was  not  the  same  nation  that 
the  Northern  man  had  in  mind  when  he  thought  of 
the  future  of  industry.  * '  ^ 

Even  in  its  influence  in  behalf  of  a  Southern  na- 
tionalism, cotton  pointed  westward,  and  thereby  lent 
itself  to  a  further  estrangement  between  South  and 
North. 

8  Division  and  Reunion,  as  cited,  p.  164. 


CHAPTER  42 

TEXAS  AND  THE   WILMOT   PROVISO 

The  second  great  sectional  struggle  occurred 
twenty-five  years  after  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
in  connection  with  the  admission  of  Texas  in  1845. 
No  particular  stir  was  occasioned  by  the  admission 
in  the  same  year  of  Iowa  and  Florida,  which  main- 
tained the  equilibrium  theory,  as  had  been  the  case 
with  Michigan  and  Arkansas  in  1836.  But  to  admit 
Texas  would  be  '*to  add  to  the  area  of  slavery  an 
enormous  territory,  big  enough  for  the  formation 
of  eight  or  ten  States  of  the  ordinary  size,  and  thus 
to  increase  tremendously  the  political  influence  of 
the  Southern  States  and  the  slave-holding  class. 
For  this  the  Northern  members  of  Congress  were 
not  prepared. ' '  ^  John  Quincy  Adams  led  a  North- 
ern body  of  opinion  to  the  effect  that  the  annexation 
of  Texas  would  bring  about  and  fully  justify  a  dis- 
solution of  the  Union,  while  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son met  hearty  applause  when  he  proposed  in  Bos- 
ton that  Massachusetts  should  actually  secede.  On 
the  other  hand,  ''Texas  or  disunion"  was  the  rally- 
ing cry  of  Southern  extremists,  who,  under  the  con- 
ditions to  which  cotton  culture  had  now  advanced, 
regarded  the  Garrison  program  of  abolition  as 
''nothing  less  than  a  proposal  to  destroy,  root  and 
branch,  the  whole  industry  of  that  section." 

Texas  came  in  as  a  cotton  State  in  December,  but 

1  Wilson,  Division  and  Reunion,  p.  143. 

205 


206        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

in  August  of  the  following  year  David  Wilmot,  of 
Pennsylvania,  perpetuated  and  heightened  the  con- 
troversy by  his  famous  ''Proviso,"  offered  as  rider 
to  an  appropriation  bill,  to  exclude  slavery  and  in- 
voluntary servitude,  except  for  crime,  from  any  ad- 
ditional territories  that  might  be  acquired  from 
Mexico. 

While  the  Wilmot  Proviso  merely  adopted  the 
phraseology  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  (for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Northwest  Territory),  this  is  sixty 
years  later;  and  nothing  could  better  illustrate  the 
political  evolution  that  had  taken  place  during  that 
period  than  the  treatment  accorded  to  this  measure 
in  the  Senate.  Calhoun  promptly  met  it  by  a  series 
of  resolutions  asserting  in  substance  that  Congress 
lacked  the  power  to  prohibit  slavery  in  a  territory, 
and  that  the  attempted  exercise  of  such  power  would 
violate  the  Constitution  and  lead  to  a  subversion  of 
the  Union.  Both  the  Proviso  and  these  resolutions 
failed  of  passage,  as  Calhoun  had  probably  ex- 
pected. His  prescience  of  the  waning  power  of  the 
South,  however,  inclined  him  to  immediate  aggres- 
sion. In  a  private  letter  written  during  the  year  he 
said: 

''Instead  of  shunning,  we  ought  to  court  the  issue 
with  the  North  on  the  slavery  question. — ^We  are 
now  stronger  relatively  than  we  shall  be  hereafter, 
politically  and  morally. — Had  the  South,  or  even  my 
own  State,  backed  me,  I  would  have  forced  the  issue 
on  the  North  in  1835,  when  the  spirit  of  abolitionism 
first  developed  itself  to  any  considerable  extent. 
It  is  a  true  maxim,  to  meet  danger  on  the  frontier,  in 
politics  as  well  as  war.  Thus  thinking,  I  am  of  the 
impression,  that  if  the  South  act  as  it  ought,  the 
Wilmot  Proviso,  instead  of  proving  to  be  the  means 


TEXAS  AND  THE  WILMOT  PEOVISO     207 

of  successfully  assailing  us  and  our  peculiar  institu- 
tion, may  be  made  the  occasion  of  successfully  as- 
serting our  equality  and  rights,  by  enabling  us  to 
force  the  issue  on  the  North.    Something  of  the 

kind  was  indispensable  to  rouse  and  unite  the 
South.  "2 

Calhoun  was  not  writing  of  war;  he  was  seeking 
to  force  the  issue  politically,  as  his  words  indicate ; 
and  thus,  by  averting  war,  to  preserve  the  Union. 
The  last  great  struggle  to  this  end  took  place  three 
years  later  between  him  and  Webster,  in  connec- 
tion with  Clay's  famous  Compromise  of  1850.  Cal- 
houn and  Webster  were  both  devoted  to  the  Union, 
although  they  grasped  opposite  horns  of  the  Con- 
stitutional dilemma  of  States-rights  and  centralized 
sovereignty.  Clay,  no  less  a  friend  of  the  Union 
than  they,  had  succeeded  marvelously  with  com- 
promise measures  for  twenty  years,  but  this  was 
to  be  his  last  victory.  It  was  a  conflict  of  giants, 
involving  the  most  intense  human  interest,  and  also 
setting  forth  with  consummate  skill — in  the  great 
speech  of  Webster  on  **The  Constitution  and  the 
Union" — the  effect  which  the  innocent  cotton  plant 
had  wrought  towards  the  sundering  of  the  States. 

The  Wihnot  Proviso  came  up  again  and  again. 
The  principle  involved  was  successfully  applied  to 
the  organization  of  the  Oregon  territory  in  1848, 
after  great  wrangling,  but  promised  such  inter- 
minable dissension  with  regard  to  California  and 
New  Mexico  that  Clay,  in  the  January  of  1850,  pro- 
posed his  last  and  most  inclusive  compromise. 
** California  and  New  Mexico" — comprising  at 
that  time  not  only  these  sections  as  now  defined,  but 
also  Nevada,  UtaJi,  and  Arizona,  with  parts  of  Colo- 

2  Cited  by  Lamed,  vol.  v,  p.  3381. 


208        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

rado  and  Wyoming — were  to  be  exempt  of  any  na- 
tional regulation  as  to  slavery,  thus  avoiding  offense 
in  either  direction,  although  California  had  already 
adopted  a  non-slavery  constitution;  and  it  was 
thought  that  New  Mexico  would  do  likewise,  which 
proved  to  be  true;  while  the  free-soilers  were  to 
be  placated  by  prohibiting  the  slave  trade  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  and  the  Border  States  appeased 
by  the  enactment  of  a  stricter  fugitive  slave  law. 

Thus  Clay,  with  the  dignity  of  years  upon  him, 
arose  from  his  seat  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  and, 
"waving  a  roll  of  papers,  with  dramatic  eloquence 
and  deep  feeling,  announced  to  a  hushed  auditory 
that  he  held  in  his  hand  a  series  of  resolutions  pro- 
posing an  amicable  arrangement  of  all  questions 
growing  out  of  the  subject  of  slavery."^ 

From  January  until  September  the  great  dialectic 
struggle  continued,  centered  about  the  Wilmot  Pro- 
viso, which  would  not  down.  Clay  made  his  chief 
defense  of  his  own  measure  in  July,  declaring  with 
a  sincere  if  somewhat  florid  eloquence  his  absolute 
devotion  to  the  Union. — **I  believe  from  the  bottom 
of  my  soul  that  the  measure  is  the  reunion  of  this 
Union.  I  believe  it  is  the  dove  of  peace,  which, 
taking  its  aerial  flight  from  the  dome  of  the  Capitol, 
carries  the  glad  tidings  of  assured  peace  and  re- 
stored harmony  to  all  the  remotest  extremities  of 
this  distracted  land. — I  owe  a  paramount  allegiance 
to  the  whole  Union — a  subordinate  one  to  my  own 
State."* 

8F.   W.  Seward,  Seward  at  Washington:     New  York,  1891;   ch. 
xvi,  cited  by  Lamed,  v,  3383. 
*  A.  Johnston,  American  Orations,  as  cited,  ii,  pp.  210,  218. 


CHAPTER  431 

1850:   CALHOUN   SPEAKS 

Professing  an  equal  devotion  to  the  Union,  Cal- 
houn held  an  opinion  directly  opposed  to  Clay's  on 
the  question  of  paramount  allegiance.  His  posi- 
tion is  best  expressed  in  the  last  speech  he  delivered, 
that  of  March  4,  1850,  when  the  debate  had  reached 
its  grand  climax.  **Long  battle  with  disease  had 
wasted  his  frame,  but,  swathed  in  flannels,  he  crawled 
to  the  Senate  Chamber  to  utter  his  last  words  of 
warning  to  the  North,  and  to  make  his  last  appeal 
for  what  he  considered  justice  to  his  own  beloved 
South."  2  Too  feeble  for  the  task  of  delivering  his 
speech,  he  explained  that  "his  friend,  the  Senator  be- 
hind him,  would  read  it  for  him. '  *  Dr.  White  draws  a 
graphic  picture  of  the  scene:  *' While  Mason  was 
reading  there  was  a  deep  silence.  Webster  and  Clay 
sat  like  statues.  Many  of  the  Senators  were  moved 
to  tears.  There  was  a  great  hush  among  the  people 
in  the  galleries  as  the  last  appeal  for  peace  between 
North  and  South  was  heard  from  the  noble  Carolina 
Senator. ' '  ^ 

The  speech  is  a  model  of  that  severe  and  compact 
logic  in  which  Calhoun  was  a  master.  Taking  as 
his  great  theme  the  question,  **How  can  the  Union 

1  Chief  authority :  Johnston's  American  Orations,  as  cited,  ii, 
123-160,  and  notes. 

2  Rhodes,  i,  127. 

8H.  A.  White,  in  Library  of  Southern  Literature:  Atlanta,  1908; 
vol.  ii,  p.  679. 

200 


210        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

be  preserved?'*  he  says  that  in  order  to  answer 
this  we  must  first  know  what  has  endangered  the 
Union;  and  answers,  that  it  is  the  almost  universal 
discontent  pervading  the  Southern  States.  Inquir- 
ing as  to  the  cause  of  this  discontent,  he  finds  it  in 
the  belief  of  the  Southern  people  ''that  they  can- 
not remain,  as  things  now  are,  consistently  with 
honor  and  safety,  in  the  Union."  Proceeding  next 
to  the  causes  of  this  general  belief,  he  reaches  his 
favorite  equilibrium  doctrine,  and  furnishes  some 
interesting  figures.  When  the  Constitution  was 
ratified  there  was  nearly  a  perfect  equilibrium  be- 
tween the  two  sections,  ''which  afforded  ample 
means  to  each  to  protect  itself  against  the  aggres- 
sion of  the  other" — a  population  of  1,997,899  in  the 
North,  and  of  1,952,072  in  the  South,  with  an  almost 
equal  representation  in  the  electoral  college  and  the 
two  Houses  of  Congress.  But  now,  by  the  census 
of  1840,  the  North  is  shown  to  have  a  population  of 
9,728,920,  while  the  South  has  only  7,334,437;  the 
North  having  a  majority  of  two  in  the  Senate,  forty- 
eight  in  the  House,  and  fifty  in  the  electoral  college, 
which  majority  will  be  so  augmented,  "should  the 
effort  now  made  to  exclude  the  South  from  the 
newly  acquired  territories  succeed,"  as  to  give  forty 
Northern  senators  to  twenty-eight  Southern — ^thus 
"effectually  and  irretrievably  destroying  the  equilib- 
rium which  existed  when  the  Government  com- 
menced. * ' 

Calhoun  then  goes  on  to  say  that  had  this  de- 
struction been  the  operation  of  time,  without  the  in- 
terference of  Government,  the  South  would  have 
no  reason  to  complain;  but  it  was  caused  by  dis- 
criminatory legislation,  including  laws  that  affected 
slavery  and  the  tariff.    He  also  complains  of  the 


1850:  CALHOUN  SPEAKS  211 

meddlesome  mischief  wrought  by  fanatical  aboli- 
tionists, and  shows  the  fearsome  signs  of  the  times, 
implied  in  such  facts  as  the  sundering  of  the  great 
religious  denominations  by  sectional  cleavage. 
Coming  at  length  to  his  important  original  question, 
**How  can  the  Union  be  saved?"  he  declares  that 
the  South  **has  no  compromise  to  offer  but  the  Con- 
stitution;" let  its  provisions  concerning  fugitive 
slaves  be  faithfully  fulfilled,  and  let  it  be  amended 
so  as  to  **  restore  to  the  South,  in  substance,  the 
power  she  possessed  of  protecting  herself,  before 
the  equilibrium  between  the  sections  was  destroyed 
by  the  action  of  this  Government. — It  is  time.  Sena- 
tors, that  there  should  be  an  open  and  manly  avowal 
on  all  sides,  as  to  what  is  intended  to  be  done.  K 
the  question  is  not  now  settled,  it  is  uncertain 
whether  it  ever  can  hereafter  be.  If  you,  who  repre- 
sent the  stronger  portion,  cannot  agree  to  settle  on 
the  broad  principle  of  justice  and  duty,  say  so ;  and 
let  the  States  we  both  represent  agree  to  separate 
and  part  in  peace.  If  you  remain  silent,  you  will 
compel  us  to  infer  by  your  acts  what  you  intend. 
In  that  case,  California  will  become  the  test  ques- 
tion. If  you  admit  her,  under  all  the  difficulties  that 
oppose  her  admission,  you  compel  us  to  infer  that 
you  intend  to  exclude  us  from  the  whole  of  the  ac- 
quired territories,  with  the  intention  of  destroying, 
irretrievably,  the  equilibrium  between  the  two  sec- 
tions. We  would  be  blind  not  to  perceive  in  that 
case,  that  your  real  objects  are  power  and  aggran- 
dizement, and  infatuated,  not  to  act  accordingly. 

**I  have  now.  Senators,  done  my  duty  in  express- 
ing my  opinions  fully,  freely  and  candidly,  on  this 
solemn  occasion.  In  doing  so  I  have  been  governed 
by  the  motives  which  have  governed  me  in  all  the 


212        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

stages  of  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question 
since  its  commencement.  I  have  exerted  my- 
self, during  the  whole  period,  to  arrest  it,  with 
the  intention  of  saving  the  Union,  if  it  could  be 
done ;  and  if  it  could  not,  to  save  the  section  where 
it  has  pleased  Providence  to  cast  my  lot,  and  which 
I  sincerely  believe  has  justice  and  the  Constitution 
on  its  side." 

When  the  address  was  finished,  says  Dr.  White,^ 
the  members  of  the  Senate  crowded  around  Calhoun 
to  take  him  by  the  hand  and  congratulate  him.  He 
walked  forward  and  stood  for  a  few  moments  near 
the  clerk's  desk  and  there  held  an  earnest  talk  with 
his  two  great  friends,  Daniel  Webster  and  Henry 
Clay.  Von  Hoist  dramatically  adds  that  when,  sup- 
ported on  the  shoulders  of  two  of  his  friends,  he 
tottered  out  of  the  Senate  Chamber,  the  doors  that 
shut  behind  him  closed  on  the  second  period  of  the 
history  of  the  Union  under  the  Constitution,  in 
which  the  Star  of  the  South  had  mounted  to  the 
Zenith.^  On  the  seventh  of  March,  three  days  later, 
Calhoun,  with  the  dew  of  death  upon  him,  crept  back 
within  the  Senate  Chamber  to  hear  the  immortal  re- 
ply of  Webster,  of  which  Rhodes  says:  **It  is  the 
only  speech  in  our  history  which  is  named  by  the 
date  of  its  delivery,  and  the  general  acquiescence  in 
this  designation  goes  to  show  that  it  was  a  turning 
point  in  the  action  of  Congress,  in  popular  senti- 
ment, and  in  the  history  of  the  country.'*® 

*  As  cited. 

6  Cited  in  Johnston's  Orations,  ii,  38&-387. 

«  Rhodes,  i,  144. 


CHAPTER  44 

1850:  WEBSTEB^  ANSWERS  CALHOTTN 

Webster,  profoundly  concerned,  like  Calhoun,  for 
the  preservation  of  the  menaced  Union,  and  also 
clearly  conscious  of  the  strength  of  Calhoun's  con- 
stitutional position,  threw  himself  with  his  almost 
superhuman  ability  into  this  attempt  to  save  the 
Union,  by  making  every  concession  consistent  with 
justice,  and  by  recommending  to  his  Northern  col- 
leagues reliance  upon  natural  laws  for  preventing 
the  further  extension  of  slavery,  rather  than  na- 
tional laws  like  the  mooted  Wilmot  Proviso,  which 
would  only  produce  deeper  irritation  and  danger. 
F.  W.  Seward,^  an  eye-witness,  thus  describes  Web- 
ster's demeanor  in  speaking: 

**He  rose  from  his  seat  near  the  middle  of  the 
Chamber,  wearing  his  customary  blue  coat  with 
metal  buttons,  and  with  one  hand  thrust  into  the 
buff  vest,  stood  during  his  opening  remarks,  as  im- 
passive as  a  statue;  but  growing  slightly  more  ani- 
mated as  he  proceeded.  Calm,  clear  and  powerful, 
his  sonorous  utterances,  while  they  disappointed 
thousands  of  his  friends  at  the  North,  lent  new  vigor 
to  the  *  Compromisers, '  with  whom,  it  was  seen,  he 
would  henceforth  act. ' ' 

Webster  began  by  saying : 

**I  wish  to  speak  to-day,  not  as  a  Massachusetts 

1  Chief  authority,  Webster's  Writings  and  Speeches :  Boston, 
1903;  vol.  X. 

2  Cited  by  Lamed,  v,  3384. 

213 


214        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

man,  nor  as  a  Northern  man,  but  as  an  American. 
The  imprisoned  winds  are  let  loose.  The  East,  the 
North  and  the  stormy  South  combine  to  throw  the 
whole  sea  into  commotion,  to  toss  its  billows  to  the 
skies,  and  disclose  its  profoundest  depths.  I  have 
a  part  to  act,  not  for  my  own  security  or  safety,  for 
I  am  looking  out  for  no  fragment  upon  which  to 
float  away  from  the  wreck,  if  wreck  there  must  be, 
but  for  the  good  of  the  whole,  and  the  preservation 
of  all.  I  speak  to-day  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union.    *Hear  me  for  my  cause.*  " 

Perhaps  the  most  brilliant  period  of  the  address 
occurs  near  the  close,  when,  referring  to  Calhoun's 
suggestion  of  peaceable  secession,  Webster  ex- 
claimed : 

**Sir,  your  eyes  and  mine  are  never  destined  to 
see  that  miracle.  The  dismemberment  of  this  vast 
country  without  convulsion!  The  breaking  up  of 
the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  without  ruffling  the 
surface!  Who  is  so  foolish,  I  beg  everybody's  par- 
don, as  to  expect  to  see  any  such  thing?  Sir,  he  who 
sees  these  States,  now  revolving  in  harmony  around 
a  common  center,  and  expects  to  see  them  quit  their 
places  and  fly  off  without  convulsion,  may  look  the 
next  hour  to  see  the  heavenly  bodies  rush  from  their 
spheres,  and  jostle  against  each  other  in  the  realms 
of  space,  without  causing  the  wreck  of  the  uni- 
verse. ' ' 

But  Webster  had  been  profoundly  wrought  upon 
by  those  points  of  Calhoun's  speech  that  drew  their 
cogency  from  the  principles  of  legality  and  justice ; 
moreover,  he  realized  fully  the  sincere  seriousness 
of  the  Carolinian,  who,  he  knew,  hardly  exaggerated 
the  danger  of  disunion  in  the  South.  Therefore,  he 
took  a  position  adverse  to  the  insertion  of  a  Wilmot 


1850:  WEBSTER  ANSWERS  CALHOUN     215 

Proviso  or  anything  like  it  in  the  ordinance  for  the 
organization  of  new  territory. 

"I  would  put  in  no  Wilmot  Proviso  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  a  taunt  or  a  reproach,"  said  he; 
**I  would  put  into  it  no  evidence  of  the  votes  of  a 
superior  power,  exercised  for  no  purpose  but  to 
wound  the  pride,  whether  a  just  and  a  rational 
pride,  or  an  irrational  pride,  of  the  citizens  of  the 
Southern  States." 

He  even  pointed  out,  in  reply  to  Calhoun's  doc- 
trine of  equilibrium,  that  new  slave  States  might  be 
legally  carved  from  the  immense  area  of  Texas. 
He  went  so  far  as  to  favor  a  strict  administration 
of  the  fugitive  slave  laws;  and  he  denounced  the 
abolitionists  in  a  context  that  warrants  quotation : — 

*  *  I  cannot  but  see  what  mischief  their  interference 
with  the  South  has  produced.  And  is  it  not  plain 
to  every  man?  Let  any  gentleman  who  entertains 
doubts  on  this  point  recur  to  the  debates  in  the  Vir- 
ginia House  of  Delegates  in  1832,  and  he  will  see 
with  what  freedom  a  proposition  made  by  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson Randolph  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery 
was  discussed  in  that  body.  Every  one  spoke  of 
slavery  as  he  thought;  very  ignominious  and  dis- 
paraging names  and  epithets  were  applied  to  it. 
The  debates  in  the  House  of  Delegates  on  that  occa- 
sion, I  believe,  were  all  published.  They  were  read 
by  every  colored  man  who  could  read,  and  to  those 
who  could  not  read,  those  debates  were  read  by 
others.  At  that  time  Virginia  was  not  unwilling  or 
afraid  to  discuss  this  question,  and  to  let  that  part 
of  her  population  know  as  much  of  the  discussion  as 
they  could  learn.  That  was  in  1832.  As  has  been 
said  by  the  honorable  member  from  South  Carolina, 
these  Abolition  societies  commenced  their  course  of 


216        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

action  in  1835.  It  is  said,  I  do  not  know  how  true 
it  may  be,  that  they  sent  incendiary  publications  into 
the  slave  States;  at  any  rate,  they  attempted  to 
arouse,  and  did  arouse,  a  very  strong  feeling;  in 
other  words,  they  created  great  agitation  in  the 
North  against  Southern  slavery.  Well,  what  was 
the  result?  The  bonds  of  the  slaves  were  bound 
more  firmly  than  before,  their  rivets  were  more 
strongly  fastened.  Public  opinion,  which  in  Vir- 
ginia had  begun  to  be  exhibited  against  slavery,  and 
was  opening  out  for  the  discussion  of  the  question, 
drew  back  and  shut  itself  up  in  its  castle.  I  wish 
to  know  whether  anybody  in  Virginia  can  now  talk 
openly  as  Mr.  Eandolph,  Governor  McDowell,  and 
others  talked  in  1832,  and  sent  their  remarks  to  the 
press?  We  all  know  the  fact,  and  we  all  know  the 
cause;  and  everything  that  these  agitating  people 
have  done  has  been,  not  to  enlarge,  but  to  restrain, 
not  to  set  free,  but  to  bind  faster,  the  slave  popula- 
tion of  the  South. ' ' 

Webster  admonished  Calhoun,  in  turn,  that  the 
South  was  not  without  blemish  in  violence  of  lan- 
guage and  action;  and  then  went  on  to  agree  with 
him  that  slavery  was  at  the  root  of  the  dissension 
that  threatened  the  Union  with  destruction.  He 
pointed  out  what  has  already  been  shown  in  this 
book,  that  at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Con- 
stitution the  South,  no  less  than  the  North,  had  in- 
clined to  the  abolition  of  slavery ;  and  in  tracing  the 
cause  of  the  change  that  had  occurred,  advanced  the 
argument  which  lay  at  the  heart  of  his  speech,  and 
at  the  same  time  bears  such  peculiar  relation  to  our 
subject  as  to  warrant  the  closest  attention. 


CHAPTER  45  ^ 

DANIEL  WEBSTER   ON   THE   POWER   OF   COTTON  ^ 

"There  was,  if  not  an  entire  unanimity, '*  said 
Webster,  **a  general  concurrence  of  sentiment  run- 
ning through  the  whole  community,  and  especially 
entertained  by  the  eminent  men  of  all  parts  of  the 
country  (concerning  early  slavery).  But  soon  a 
change  began,  at  the  North  and  the  South,  and  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  showed  itself ;  the  North  growing 
much  more  warm  and  strong  against  slavery,  and 
the  South  growing  much  more  warm  and  strong  in 
its  support.  Sir,  there  is  no  generation  of  mankind 
whose  opinions  are  not  subject  to  be  influenced  by 
what  appears  to  them  to  be  their  present  emergent 
and  exigent  interests.  I  impute  to  the  South  no 
particularly  selfish  view  in  the  change  which  has 
come  over  her.  I  impute  to  her  certainly  no  dis- 
honest view.  All  that  has  happened  has  been  nat- 
ural. It  has  followed  those  causes  which  always  in- 
fluence the  human  mind  and  operate  upon  it.  What, 
then,  have  been  the  causes  which  have  created  so 
new  a  feeling  in  favor  of  slavery  in  the  South,  which 
have  changed  the  whole  nomenclature  of  the  South 

iSee  Chapter  44. 

2  No  apology  should  be  necessary  for  such  a  long  citation  from 
this  famous  speech,  in  view  of  the  surprising  fact  that  even  such 
excellent  works  as  Johnston's  American  Orations  omit  the  very 
heart  of  Webster's  argument,  which  summarized  the  growth  of  the 
cotton  industry.  For  additional  evidence  of  the  importance  at- 
tached by  Webster  himself  to  COTTON  as  the  heart  of  his  argu- 
ment (which  is  otherwise  really  inexplicable),  see  Appendix  E, 

217 


218        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

on  that  subject,  so  that,  from  being  thought  and  de- 
scribed in  the  terms  I  have  mentioned  and  will  not 
repeat,  it  has  now  become  an  institution,  a  cherished 
institution,  in  that  quarter;  no  evil,  no  scourge,  but 
a  great  religious,  social,  and  moral  blessing,  as  I 
think  I  have  heard  it  latterly  spoken  of?  This,  I 
suppose  this,  sir,  is  owing  to  the  rapid  growth  and 
sudden  extension  of  the  cotton  ^  plantations  of  the 
South.  So  far  as  any  motive  consistent  with  honor, 
justice,  and  general  judgment  could  act,  it  was  the 
COTTON  interest  that  gave  a  new  desire  to  promote 
slavery,  to  spread  it,  and  to  use  its  labor.  I  again 
say  that  this  change  was  produced  by  causes  which 
must  always  produce  like  effects.  The  whole  in- 
terest of  the  South  became  connected,  more  or  less, 
with  the  extension  of  slavery.  If  we  look  back  to 
the  history  of  the  commerce  of  this  country  in  the 
early  years  of  this  government,  what  were  our  ex- 
ports? Cotton  was  hardly,  or  to  a  very  limited 
extent,  known.  In  1791  the  first  parcel  of  cotton  of 
the  growth  of  the  United  States  was  exported,  and 
amounted  only  to  19,200  pounds.*  It  has  gone  on 
increasing  rapidly,  until  the  whole  crop  may  now, 
perhaps,  in  a  season  of  great  product  and  high 
prices,  amount  to  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  In 
the  years  I  have  mentioned,  there  was  more  of  wax, 
more  of  indigo,  more  of  rice,  more  of  almost  every 
article  of  export  from  the  South,  than  of  cotton. 
When  Mr.  Jay  negotiated  the  treaty  of  1794  with 
England,  it  is  evident  from  the  twelfth  article  of  the 

'This  ^pographical  emphasis  is  copied  from   Webster's  works. 

*  Seybert's  Statistics,  p.  92.  A  small  parcel  of  cotton  found  its 
way  to  Liverpool  from  the  United  States  in  1784,  and  was  refused 
admission,  on  the  ground  that  it  could  not  be  the  growth  of  the 
United  States  (Note  in  Webster's  Works). — See  Navigation  Laws 
cited  at  close  of  Chapter  9. 


WEBSTER  ON  POWER  OF  COTTON     219 

treaty,  which  was  suspended  by  the  Senate,  that  he 
did  not  know  that  cotton  was  exported  at  all  from 
the  United  States. 

"Well,  sir,  we  know  what  followed.  The  age  of 
cotton  became  the  golden  age  of  our  Southern 
brethren.  It  gratified  their  desire  for  improvement 
and  accumulation,  at  the  same  time  that  it  excited 
it.  The  desire  grew  by  what  it  fed  upon,  and  there 
soon  came  to  be  an  eagerness  for  other  territory,  a 
new  area  or  new  areas  for  the  cultivation  of  the  cot- 
ton crop;  and  measures  leading  to  this  result  were 
brought  about  rapidly,  one  after  another,  under  the 
lead  of  Southern  men  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment, they  having  a  majority  in  both  branches  of 
Congress  to  accomplish  their  ends.  The  honorable 
member  from  South  Carolina  observed  that  there 
has  been  a  majority  all  along  in  favor  of  the  North. 
If  that  be  true,  sir,  the  North  has  acted  either  very 
liberaUy  and  kindly,  or  very  weakly ;  for  they  never 
exercised  that  majority  efficiently  five  times  in  the 
history  of  the  Government,  when  a  division  or  trial 
of  strength  arose.  Never.  Whether  they  were  out- 
generaled, or  whether  it  was  owing  to  other  causes, 
I  shall  not  stop  to  consider;  but  no  man  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  the  Union  can  deny  that  the  gen- 
eral lead  in  the  politics  of  the  country,  for  three- 
fourths  of  the  period  that  has  elapsed  since  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  has  been  a  Southern 
lead. 

"In  1802,  in  pursuit  of  the  idea  of  opening  a  new 
cotton  region,  the  United  States  obtained  a  cession 
from  Georgia  of  the  whole  of  her  Western  territory, 
now  embracing  the  rich  and  growing  States  of  Ala- 
bama and  Mississippi.  In  1803  Louisiana  was  pur- 
chased from  France,  out  of  which  the  States  of 


220   COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

Lonisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Missouri  have  been 
framed,  as  slave-holding  States.  In  1819  the  cession 
of  Florida  was  made,  bringing  in  another  region 
adapted  to  cultivation  by  slaves.  Sir,  the  honor- 
able member  from  South  Carolina  thought  he  saw 
in  certain  operations  of  the  Government,  such  as  the 
manner  of  collecting  the  revenue,  and  the  tendency 
of  measures  calculated  to  promote  emigration  into 
the  country,  what  accounts  for  the  more  rapid 
growth  of  the  North  than  the  South.  He  ascribes 
that  more  rapid  growth,  not  to  the  operation  of 
time,  but  to  the  system  of  government  and  adminis- 
tration established  under  this  Constitution.  That 
is  matter  of  opinion.  To  a  certain  extent  it  may  be 
true;  but  it  does  seem  to  me  that  if  any  operation 
of  the  Government  can  be  shown  in  any  degree  to 
have  promoted  the  population,  and  growth,  and 
wealth  of  the  North,  it  is  much  more  sure  that  there 
are  sundry  important  and  distinct  operations  of  the 
Government,  about  which  no  man  can  doubt,  tending 
to  promote,  and  which  absolutely  have  promoted, 
the  increase  of  the  slave  interest  and  the  slave  terri- 
tory of  the  South.  It  was  not  time  that  brought  in 
Louisiana;  it  was  the  act  of  men.  It  was  not  time 
that  brought  in  Florida;  it  was  the  act  of  men. 
And  lastly,  sir,  to  complete  those  acts  of  legislation 
which  have  contributed  so  much  to  enlarge  the  area 
of  the  institution  of  slavery,  Texas,  great,  and  vast, 
and  illimitable  Texas,  was  added  to  the  Union  as  a 
slave  State  in  1845 ;  and  that,  sir,  pretty  much  closed 
the  whole  chapter,  and  settled  the  whole  account.'* 

Webster  then  stated  what  he  intended  as  the  main 
proposition  of  his  speech — ''that  there  is  not  at  this 
moment  within  the  United  States,  or  any  territory 
of  the  United  States,  a  single  foot  of  land,  the  char- 


WEBSTER  ON  POWER  OF  COTTON     221 

acter  of  which,  in  regard  to  its  being  free  territory  or 
slave  territory,  is  not  fixed  by  some  law,  and  some 
irrepealable  law,  beyond  the  power  of  the  action  of 
the  Government." 

This  he  argued  with  considerable  length  as  to 
Texas.  Coming  at  last  to  the  crucial  question  of 
California  and  New  Mexico,  he  said : 

"I  hold  slavery  to  be  excluded  from  those  terri- 
tories by  a  law  even  superior  to  that  which  admits 
and  sanctions  it  in  Texas.  I  mean  the  law  of  na- 
ture, of  physical  geography,  the  law  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  earth.  That  law  settles  forever,  with  a 
strength  beyond  all  terms  of  human  enactment,  that 
slavery  cannot  exist  in  California  or  New  Mexico. 
Understand  me,  sir;  I  mean  slavery  as  we  regard 
it ;  the  slavery  of  the  colored  race  as  it  exists  in  the 
Southern  States.  California  and  New  Mexico  are 
Asiatic  in  their  formation  and  scenery.  They  are 
composed  of  vast  ridges  of  mountains,  of  great 
height,  with  broken  ridges  and  deep  valleys.  The 
sides  of  these  mountains  are  entirely  barren;  their 
tops  capped  by  perennial  snow.  There  may  be  in 
California,  now  made  free  by  its  constitution,  and 
no  doubt  there  are,  some  tracts  of  valuable  land. 
But  it  is  not  so  in  New  Mexico.  What  is  there  in 
New  Mexico  that  could,  by  any  possibility,  induce 
anybody  to  go  there  with  slaves?  There  are  some 
narrow  strips  of  tillable  land  on  the  borders  of  the 
rivers ;  but  the  rivers  themselves  dry  up  before  mid- 
summer is  gone.  All  that  the  people  can  do  in  that 
region  is  to  raise  some  little  articles,  some  little 
wheat  for  their  tortillas,  and  that  by  irrigation. 
And  who  expects  to  see  a  hundred  black  men  culti- 
vating tobacco,  corn,  cotton,  rice,  or  anything  else, 
on  lands  in  New  Mexico,  made  fertile  only  by  irriga- 


222        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

tioni  I  look  upon  it,  therefore,  as  a  fixed  fact,  to 
use  the  current  expression  of  the  day,  that  both 
California  and  New  Mexico  are  destined  to  be  free, 
free  by  the  arrangement  of  things  ordained  by  the 
Power  above  us.  I  have,  therefore  to  say,  in  this 
respect  also,  that  this  country  is  fixed  for  freedom, 
to  as  many  persons  as  shall  ever  live  in  it,  by  a  less 
repealable  law  than  that  which  attaches  to  the  right 
of  holding  slaves  in  Texas ;  and  I  will  say  further, 
that,  if  a  resolution  or  a  bill  were  now  before  us,  to 
provide  a  territorial  government  for  New  Mexico,  I 
would  not  vote  to  put  any  prohibition  into  it  what- 
ever. Such  a  prohibition  would  be  idle,  as  it  re- 
spects any  effect  it  would  have  upon  the  territory; 
and  I  would  not  take  pains  uselessly  to  reaffirm  an 
ordinance  of  nature,  nor  to  reenact  the  will  of 
God." 

In  short,  Webster  answered  Calhoun's  political 
explication  of  the  growth  of  divergence  between  the 
two  sections  with  an  economic  argument :  the  intro- 
duction of  cotton  had  caused  the  South  to  recede 
from  its  early  opposition  to  slavery;  slavery  had 
extended  with  the  growth  of  the  cotton  States,  and 
now  there  was  no  more  cotton  territory  left.  There- 
fore, in  his  effort  to  preserve  the  Union,  he  pleaded 
for  the  status  quo,  and  endorsed  Clay's  Com- 
promise. 


CHAPTER  46 

THE  END  OF   AN   EPOCH 

The  Congressional  struggle  had  not  yet  reached 
the  stage  of  contention  as  to  whether  slavery  should 
continue  to  exist  in  the  States  where  it  was  already 
established;  the  question  was  just  one  of  extension. 
Webster's  fresh  and  brilliant  economic  argument, 
backed  by  his  immense  influence,  had  a  tremendous 
effect.  He  himself  considered  this  speech  the  most 
important  effort  of  his  life.  His  eulogists  assert 
that  it  postponed  the  decisive  conflict  until  the  su- 
periority of  the  North  over  the  South,  in  popula- 
tion and  material  resources,  was  overwhelming. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  terrible  blundering  of  Doug- 
las in  1854,  this  postponement  might  possibly  have 
been  protracted  until  some  wise  and  kindly  genius 
like  Lincoln  could  have  accomplished  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  slaves  without  war;  for  the  speech  ex- 
pressed the  quintessence  of  sanity,  in  spite  of  mis- 
takes in  some  minor  particulars.^  As  Rhodes  says, 
it  ** produced  a  wonderful  sensation;  none  other  in 
our  annals  had  an  immediate  effect  so  mighty  and 
striking. — His  moral  and  intellectual  influence  in 
the  free  States  was  greater  than  that  of  any  man 
living,  for  the  people  had  confidence  that  his 
gigantic  intellect  would  discover  the  right,  and  that 
his  intellectual  honesty  would  compel  him  to  follow 
it.     The  country  has  listened  to  but  two  men  on 

iSee  Chapter  74. 

223 


224        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

whose  words  they  have  hung  with  greater  reverence 
than  those  of  Webster.  The  intellectual  force  and 
moral  greatness  of  Washington  and  of  Lincoln  were 
augmented  by  their  high  office  and  the  gravity  of 
the  existing  crises.  When  the  first  excitement  had 
subsided,  the  friends  of  Webster  bestirred  them- 
selves, and  soon  testimonials  poured  in,  approv- 
ing the  position  which  he  had  taken.  The  most  sig- 
nificant of  them  was  the  one  from  eight  hundred 
solid  men  of  Boston  [presumably  ** cotton  whigs"], 
who  thanked  him  for  *  recalling  us  to  our  duties  under 
the  Constitution,'  and  for  his  'broad,  national  and 
patriotic  views. ' — It  is  frequently  said  that  a  speech 
in  Congress  does  not  alter  opinions ;  that  the  minds 
of  men  are  determined  by  set  political  bias  or  sec- 
tional considerations.  This  was  certainly  not  the 
case  in  1850.  Webster's  influence  was  of  the  great- 
est weight  in  the  passage  of  the  compromise  meas- 
ures, and  he  is  as  closely  associated  with  them  as  is 
their  author.  Clay's  adroit  parliamentary  manage- 
ment was  necessary  to  carry  them  through  the 
various  and  tedious  steps  of  legislation.  But  it  was 
Webster  who  raised  up  for  them  a  powerful  and 
much  needed  support  from  Northern  public  senti- 
ment. His  argument  could  not  legally  be  impugned. 
— It  is  probable  that  the  matured  historical  view  will 
be  that  Webster's  position  as  to  the  application  of 
the  Wilmot  Proviso  to  New  Mexico  was  statesman- 
ship of  the  highest  order."  ^ 

The  abolitionists,  however,  were  angered. 
Theodore  Parker  compared  the  speech  with  the 
treason  of  Benedict  Arnold.^  Emerson  wrote: 
**He  is  a  man  who  lives  by  his  memory;  a  man  of 

2  Rhodes,  i,  149,  152,  156-157. 
'See  note  at  end  of  this  chapter. 


THE  END  OF  AN  EPOCH  225 

the  past,  not  a  man  of  faith  and  hope.  All  the 
drops  of  his  blood  have  eyes  that  look  downward, 
and  his  finely  developed  understanding  only  works 
truly  and  with  all  its  force  when  it  stands  for  ani- 
mal good;  that  is,  for  property."*  Whittier  wrote 
a  threnody  of  ''Ichabod": 

So  fallen !    So  lost !  the  light  withdrawn 

Which  once  he  wore. 
The  glory  from  his  gray  hairs  gone 

Forevermore. 


Let  not  the  land  once  proud  of  him 

Insult  him  now, 
Nor  brand  with  deeper  shame  his  dim 

Dishonored  brow. 


Of  all  we  loved  and  honored  naught 

Save  power  remains; 
A  fallen  angel's  pride  of  thought 

Still  strong  in  chains. 

All  else  is  gone ;  from  those  great  eyes 

The  soul  has  fled; 
When  faith  is  lost,  when  honor  dies, 

The  man  is  dead. 

Then  pay  the  reverence  of  old  days 

To  his  dead  fame ; 
Walk  backward  with  averted  gaze 

And  hide  his  shame. 

The  free-soilers  were  not  without  able  spokesmen 
in  Congress,  of  whom  Seward  was  chief;  and  the 
Compromise  was  not  finally  effected  before  he  was 

*  Cited  in  Johnston's  Orations,  ii,  398. 


226         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

heard  from.  Two  years  previously  he  had  created  a 
profound  sensation  at  Cleveland  by  declaring: 
"Slavery  can  be  limited  to  its  present  bounds;  it 
can  be  ameliorated;  it  can  and  must  be  abolished, 
and  you  and  I  can  and  must  do  it."  Four  days 
after  Webster's  famous  speech  he  arose  in  his  place 
in  the  Senate  and  sounded  the  note  of  aggression  in 
the  challenging  phrase,  '^a  higher  law" — asserting 
that  slavery  must  yield  "to  the  salutary  instructions 
of  economy  and  to  the  ripening  influences  of  hu- 
manity." Around  this  "higher  law  doctrine"  the 
Abolition  movement  now  began  to  crystallize,  hav- 
ing as  its  object  not  the  mere  limitation  of  slavery 
to  its  foothold  already  obtained,  but  its  utter  extir- 
pation. The  stage  was  setting  for  new  scenes,  and 
we  have  reached  the  end  of  an  epoch.  Calhoun 
died  on  the  last  day  of  March,  1850,  "stricken  at 
heart,  as  it  must  have  seemed  to  all  who  observed 
him  closely,  because  forced  in  those  last  days  to  see 
with  his  keen  eye  of  prophecy  what  the  years  to  come 
must  inevitably  bring  to  pass."^  Two  years  later 
Clay  and  Webster  followed  him. 

Note. — Parker  could  occasionally  be  very  effective  as  a  satirist. 
In  his  "Anti-Slavery  Scrap  Book"  (now  in  the  Boston  Public  Li- 
brary) may  be  found  "Another  Chapter  in  the  Book  of  Daniel," 
written  for  the  New  York  Tribune  apropos  of  the  capture  of  "Shad- 
rach"  [a  fugitive  slave].  The  bitter  allusions  to  Webster  make  this 
lampoon  very  interesting. 

"Now  it  came  to  pass  in  the  latter  days  that  Daniel  was  King 
over  all  the  children  of  Jonathan,  which  had  waxed  many  and  fat  in 
the  land.  And  by  reasons  which  the  prophet  detaileth  not,  Daniel's 
head  was  turned  and  he  went  after  strange  gods." 

Then  comes  an  account  of  Daniel's  gradual  surrender  to  these  gods 
of  the  Southernites,  followed  by  several  very  telling  paragraphs 
about  "the  great  city  of  the  Northernites  which  lieth  to  the  eastward 
on  the  seashore  as  thou  goest  down  to  the  old  country,  and  it  is 
called  Boston." 

"And  in  that  city  there  was  a  street  called  Milk,  peradventure 

6  Woodrow  Wilson  in  Cambridge  Modern  History,  vii,  418.  See 
also  Division  and  Reimion,  p.  174. 


THE  END  OF  AN  EPOCH  227 

because  it  is  the  dwelling  place  of  so  many  of  the  babes  and  suck- 
lings of  commerce,  and  also  another  called  State,  wherein  be  the 
priests'  offices  and  the  temples  of  their  chief  gods. 

"For  in  that  city  they  did  worship  many  strange  gods  whereof 
the  chief  was  called  Money,  an  idol  whose  head  was  of  fine  gold,  the 
belly  of  silver,  and  legs  of  copper;  but  second  thereto  was  another 
notable  idol  called  Cotton. 

"Unto  this  latter  they  did  sacrifice  and  build  him  high  places  and 
factories  by  the  brooks  that  run  among  the  hills,  and  bowed  down 
and  worshiped  him,  saying,  'Cotton  help  us!     Cotton  help  us!' 

"Then  they  held  a  meeting  and  cried  out,  'Great  is  Cotton  of  the 
Boston ians.  There  is  no  god  but  Money,  no  lord  but  Cotton,  no 
king  but  Daniel,  nothing  better  tlian  riches,  and  no  justice  but  only 
the  laws  of  Daniel.'    Then  said  they,  'We  be  a  great  people.' " 

After  which  comes  a  description  of  the  capture  of  Shadrach,  "a 
servant  in  an  inn,"  whom  they  "took  away  from  his  frying  pans 
and  his  skillets  and  his  ovens  and  his  gridirons  and  his  spits,"  but 
whom,  none  the  less,  the  Lord  delivered,  '"whereupon  the  worshipers 
of  Money  and  of  Cotton  fell  down  on  their  faces  and  wept  sore,  and 
they  said,  'Alas  for  us,  the  Lord  has  triumphed,  and  Cotton  has 
fallen  down.  Lo,  Daniel  will  hate  us  and  will  make  a  proclama- 
tion and  send  a  message  and  the  Southernites  will  be  upon  us  and 
take  away  our  hope  of  a  tariff.  We  will  be  all  dead  men.'  And 
their  hearts  became  as  a  dog's  heart  when  he  barketh  but  knoweth 
not  whom  he  may  bite." — Mary  C.  Crawford,  Eomantic  Days  in 
Old  Boston:     Boston,  1912;  p.  211. 


CHAPTER  47 

** COTTON  IS  king" 

The  mad  action  of  Douglas  in  1854  justified 
Seward's  subsequent  prediction  of  *'the  irrepress- 
ible conflict,"  which  it  undoubtedly  hastened,  by 
repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise  altogether — 
something  that  the  Southerners  had  never  dreamed 
of  obtaining,  and  that  threw  the  country  into  a  pas- 
sionate uproar  of  excitement.  Almost  immediately 
the  Burns  case  flared  up  in  Boston,  and  it  took  1,140 
Federal  soldiers  with  muskets  loaded,  backed  by  a 
field  piece  loaded  with  grape-shot,  to  enforce  the 
fugitive  slave  law  against  mobs  led  by  such  men  as 
Higginson,  Phillips,  and  Parker.^  ''Bloody  Kan- 
sas" became  an  actual  battle-ground  in  the  physi- 
cal contention  over  slavery.  Northern  and  Southern 
settlers  vying  for  mastery  in  the  settlement  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska,  now  that  the  decision  as  to 
slavery  was  to  be  left  to  the  popular  vote.  By  the 
irony  of  fate,  Kansas  was  to  retaliate  on  Virginia  in 
1859,  through  the  strange  and  sinister  raid  of  "Ossa- 
wotomie  Brown."  Judges  like  Taney  and  writers 
such  as  Mrs.  Stowe  were  fanning  the  fires  in  the 
North,  from  one  side  and  the  other,  while  the  South 
was  stirred  to  its  depths  by  the  expectation  of 
Northern  invasion,  and  inspired  by  the  belief  that  it 
must  fight  for  its  hearth-stones.  The  threads  of 
the  gigantic  drama  became  inextricably  tangled  and 

iKhodes,  i,  500-506. 

228 


"COTTON  IS  KING"  229 

confused,  so  that  now  this  and  now  that  line  has  been 
seized  upon  as  the  clue  to  the  mazes  of  this  terrible 
war;  but  the  complicated  pattern  is  after  all  a  web 
of  Arachne's  own  weaving.  Shuttled  back  and 
forth  through  labyrinths  of  political  and  emotional 
disputation  flew  on  either  side  the  economic  argu- 
ments, arresting  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  as 
a  source  of  relief  from  the  passionate  confusion  of 
the  times.  In  the  South  there  appeared  in  1855  a 
book  by  an  anonymous  writer,  entitled,  **  Cotton  is 
King;  or.  Slavery  in  the  Light  of  Political  Econ- 
omy.'* Subsequently  the  author  declared  himself 
as  David  Christy,  of  Cincinnati;  and,  associated 
with  other  writers,  produced  so  late  as  1860  a  bulky 
volume  of  pro-slavery  arguments  whose  bare  titles 
indicate  the  character  and  number  of  protagonists 
that  cotton  had  drawn  to  its  defense. 

Besides  Christy's  original  work  on  "Cotton  is 
King,"  this  book  includes  a  treatise  on  "Liberty  and 
Slavery:  or.  Slavery  in  the  Light  of  Moral  and 
Political  Philosophy,"  2  by  Albert  Taylor  Bledsoe, 
LL.D.,  professor  of  mathematics  in  the  University 
of  Virginia;  "The  Bible  Argument:  or.  Slavery  in 
the  Light  of  Divine  Eevelation,"  by  Thornton 
Stringfellow,  D.D.,  of  Eichmond;  a  chapter  on 
"Slavery  in  the  Light  of  Social  Ethics,"  by  Chan- 
cellor Harper,  of  South  Carolina;  one  on  "Slavery 
in  the  Light  of  Political  Science,"  comprising  the 
famous  Clarkson  Letters,  by  James  Henry  Ham- 
mond, formerly  Governor  of  South  Carolina  and 

2  "Had  the  Northern  and  Western  States  been  subjected  to  the 
same  climatic  and  economic  conditions,  there  is  little  doubt  that 
.  .  .  they  would  have  completely  shared  the  moral  views  of  their 
Southern  brethren.  Men  are  what  conditions  make  them,  and 
ethical  ideals  are  not  exempt  from  the  same  inexorable  law  of 
environment." — E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  The  Economic  Interpretation  o£ 
History:     New  York,  1912;  p.  128. 


230        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

then  United  States  Senator;  a  dissertation  on 
''Slavery  in  the  Light  of  Ethnology,"  by  Samuel  A. 
Cartwright,  M.D.,  of  Louisiana,  who  also  wrote  a 
chapter  on  **The  Education,  Labor  and  Wealth  of 
the  South";  a  treatise  on  ** Slavery  in  the  Light  of 
International  Law,"  by  President  Elliott,  of  the 
Planters'  College  of  Mississippi ;  and  two  by  Charles 
Hodge,  D.D.,  of  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  entitled  re- 
spectively "The  Fugitive  Slave  Law"  and  '*The 
Bible  Argument  on  Slavery."  But  all  of  these  di- 
verse pro-slavery  arguments  are  properly  mar- 
shaled under  the  title  of  the  opening  chapter,  * '  Cot- 
ton is  King;  or.  Slavery  in  the  Light  of  Political 
Economy,"  the  original  nucleus  around  which  the 
larger  compendium  was  assembled. 

The  viewpoint  of  David  Christy,  the  Northern 
author  of  ''Cotton  is  King,"  is  well  expressed  in  the 
preface  to  this  edition  of  1860 : 

''The  negro  is  to  American  politics  what  cotton  is 
to  European  manufactures  and  commerce — the  con- 
trolling element.  As  the  overthrow  of  American 
slavery,  with  the  consequent  suspension  of  the 
motion  of  the  spindles  and  looms  of  Europe,  would 
bring  ruin  upon  millions  of  its  population;  so  the 
dropping  of  the  negro  question,  in  American  poli- 
tics, would  at  once  destroy  the  prospects  of  thou- 
sands of  aspirants  to  office.  In  ninety-nine  cases 
out  of  a  hundred,  the  clamor  against  slavery  is 
made  only  for  effect ;  and  there  is  not  now,  nor  has 
there  been  at  any  other  period,  any  intention  on  the 
part  of  political  agitators  to  wage  actual  war  against 
the  slave  States  themselves." 


CHAPTER  48 
"the  impending  cbisis'* 

As  Christy,  from  the  North,  produced  the  most 
notable  argument  in  behalf  of  slavery,  so  Hinton 
Eowan  Helper,  a  Southern  man,  produced  the  chief 
economic  argument  against  it,  in  a  book  called  * '  The 
Impending  Crisis  of  the  South:  How  to  Meet  It," 
published  in  1857  in  New  York. 

Helper,  whose  name  originally  was  Heifer,  was  a 
native  of  Eowan  County,  North  Carolina;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  **poor  white"  class,  befriended  in  youth 
by  Mr.  Michael  Brown,^  a  merchant  of  the  town  of 
Salisbury.  Subsequently  taking  up  his  home  in  the 
North  and  studying  practical  economics  for  prac- 
tical purposes,  when  ** Cotton  is  King"  first  ap- 
peared Helper  was  able  to  answer  it  with  consider- 
able spirit  and  ability. 

"The  truth  is,"  he  says,  "that  the  cotton  crop  is 
of  but  little  value  to  the  South.  New  England  and 
Old  England  by  their  superior  enterprise  and  sa- 
gacity, turn  it  chiefly  to  their  own  advantage.  It 
is  carried  in  their  ships,  spun  in  their  factories, 
woven  in  their  looms,  insured  in  their  offices,  re- 
turned again  in  their  own  vessels,  and,  with  double 
freight  and  cost  of  manufacture  added,  purchased 
by  the  South  at  a  high  premium."  ^ 

Touching  on  a  tender  spot  with  no  light  finger, 
Helper  violently  exclaims: 

1  The  author's  maternal  grandfather. 

2  Ctisis,  p.  54. 

231 


'232        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

** Reader!  would  you  understand  how  abjectly 
slave-holders  themselves  are  enslaved  to  the  prod- 
ucts of  Northern  industry?  If  you  would,  fix  your 
mind  on  a  Southern  'gentleman' — a  slave  breeder 
and  human-flesh  monger,  who  professes  to  be  a 
Christian  I  Observe  the  routine  of  his  daily  life. 
See  him  rise  in  the  morning  from  a  Northern  bed, 
and  clothe  himself  in  Northern  apparel;  see  him 
walk  across  the  floor  on  a  Northern  carpet,  and  per- 
form his  ablutions  out  of  a  Northern  ewer  and  basin. 
See  him  uncover  a  box  of  Northern  powders,  and 
cleanse  his  teeth  with  a  Northern  brush ;  see  him  re- 
flecting his  physiognomy  in  a  Northern  mirror,  and 
arranging  his  hair  with  a  Northern  comb.  See  him 
dosing  himself  with  the  medicaments  of  Northern 
quacks,  and  perfuming  his  handkerchief  with  North- 
ern cologne.  See  him  referring  to  the  time  in  a 
Northern  watch,  and  glancing  at  the  news  in  a  North- 
em  gazette.  See  him  and  his  family  sitting  in 
Northern  chairs,  and  singing  and  praying  out  of 
Northern  books.  See  him  at  the  breakfast  table, 
saying  grace  over  a  Northern  plate,  eating  with 
Northern  cutlery,  and  drinking  from  Northern 
utensils.  See  him  charmed  with  the  melody  of  a 
Northern  piano,  or  musing  over  the  pages  of  a 
Northern  novel.  See  him  riding  to  his  neighbors  in 
a  Northern  carriage,  or  furrowing  his  lands  with  a 
Northern  plow.  See  him  lighting  his  segar  with 
a  Northern  match,  and  flogging  his  negroes  with  a 
Northern  lash.  See  him  with  Northern  pen  and 
ink,  writing  letters  on  Northern  paper,  and  send- 
ing them  away  in  Northern  envelopes,  sealed  with 
Northern  wax,  and  impressed  with  a  Northern 
stamp.  Perhaps  our  Southern  *  gentleman'  is  a 
merchant ;  if  so,  see  him  at  his  store,  making  an  un- 


**THE  IMPENDING  CBISIS"  233 

patriotic  use  of  his  time  in  the  miserable  traffic  of 
Northern  gimcracks  and  haberdashery;  see  him 
when  you  will,  where  you  will,  he  is  ever  surrounded 
with  the  industrial  products  of  those  whom,  in  the 
criminal  inconsistency  of  his  heart,  he  execrates  as 
enemies,  yet  treats  as  friends.  His  labors,  his  tal- 
ents, his  influence,  are  all  for  the  North,  and  not  for 
the  South;  for  the  stability  of  slavery,  and  for  the 
sake  of  his  own  personal  aggrandizement,  he  is  will- 
ing to  sacrifice  the  dearest  interests  of  his  coun- 
try."» 

Helper's  book  circulated  in  immense  quantities 
throughout  the  North,  where  great  piles  of  it  "might 
be  seen  on  the  counter  of  every  book-store,  news- 
depot,  and  newspaper  stand.'*  Rhodes  says: 
**  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin'  was  full  of  burning  indigna- 
tion at  the  wrong  done  the  slave,  and  John  Brown 
sacrificed  his  life  willingly  for  him;  while  Helper, 
though  he  had  the  prejudices  of  his  class  against  the 
black,  made  a  powerful  protest  against  the  institu- 
tion in  the  name  of  the  non-slaveholding  white.*** 

*'The  Impending  Crisis"  created  a  sectional  stir 
in  Congress,  a  Virginia  member  declaring  any  one 
who  assisted  in  the  propagation  of  such  writings  to 
be  unfit  to  live ;  while  in  the  South  it  could  be  circu- 
lated only  by  stealth.  The  Southern  feeling  against 
it,  while  due  largely  to  its  unnecessary  bitterness, 
was  stimulated  by  the  strength  of  its  economic  argu- 
ment against  slavery.  It  was  perfectly  true,  as 
Helper  claimed,  that  slavery  had  turned  the  South 
into  a  great  cotton  plantation,  while  the  North  had 
developed  a  large  diversity  of  crops  and  an  amazing 
system  of  manufactures.  It  is  also  true  that  the 
increasing  disparity  in  population  of  which  Cal- 

8  Crisis,  355-356,  *  Rhodes,  ii,  419,  428. 


234        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

houn  complained  in  the  Senate  (see  page  210)  was 
not  due  to  legislation,  as  Calhoun  had  believed,  but 
to  slavery;  the  immigrants  who  had  begun  to  pour 
in  from  Europe  being  unwilling  to  compete  with 
slave  labor  or  to  associate  with  it.  Even  the  native 
population  drifted  away  westward  and  northward. 
"The  census  of  1860  was  to  show  that  there  were  in 
South  Carolina  only  277,000  white  persons  born 
within  her  borders,  while  193,000  born  within  the 
State  were  living  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
North  Carolina  had  kept  only  634,000  out  of  906,000; 
and  Virginia  only  1,000,000  out  of  1,400,000.  Immi- 
grants did  not  come  down  into  those  fertile  valleys ; 
and  the  great  plantations,  with  their  crowding, 
docile  slaves,  thrust  out  even  those  of  native  stock 
whose  homes  had  been  there.  "^  Woodrow  Wilson 
characterizes  North  and  South  respectively  as  the 
section  which  commerce,  industry,  migration,  and 
immigration  had  expanded  and  nationalized,  and  the 
section  which  slavery  and  its  attendant  social  insti- 
tutions had  kept  unchanged  and  separate. 

0  W.  Wilson,  Cambridge  Modern  History,  vii,  415.    See  also  Divi- 
sion and  Reunion,  p.  163. 


CHAPTER  49 

SENATOR  HAMMOND  ON   THE  POWEB  OP  COTTON  * 

The  voice  of  the  South  was  articulate  in  the  na- 
tional councils,  after  the  tongue  of  Calhoun  had  been 
stilled,  most  typically  and  with  the  greatest  distinc- 
tion in  the  speeches  of  Senator  Hammond  of  South 
Carolina.  His  son.  Major  Harry  Hammond,  says: 
*' Opposed  to  slavery  in  the  abstract,  opposed  to  the 
reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade,  opposed  to  the 
extension  of  slavery  by  propagandism  in  this  coun- 
try, he  defended  the  peculiar  domestic  slavery  of  the 
South  against  the  denunciations  of  Abolitionists 
from  all  quarters,  asserting  that  they  denounced  a 
thing  of  which  they  knew  absolutely  nothing — nay, 
which  did  not  even  exist."  Senator  Hammond's 
historic  speech  of  the  fourth  of  March,  1858,  is  pe- 
culiarly suited  for  the  close  of  these  final  chapters 
on  the  Great  Controversies,  which  were  soon  to  be 
silenced  by  the  more  clamorous  voices  of  war. 

Incited  by  such  arguments  as  those  of  Helper,  but 
more  immediately  by  a  speech  of  Seward  the  day  be- 
fore, in  which  the  threat  had  been  made  "to  take 
this  Government  from  unjust  and  unfaithful  hands 
and  place  it  in  just  and  faithful  hands,"  Senator 
Hammond  combined  in  his  speech  an  economic 
panegyric  on  the  South  with  a  ringing  exposition  of 
her  part  in  the  making  of  the  nation,  that  sounded 
like  a  defiant  valedictory — as  indeed  it  was. 

1  Chief  authority:  Printer's  proofs  of  J.  H.  Hammond's  speeches, 
courteously  furnished  by  Major  Harry  Hammond. 

235 


236        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

After  discussing  the  admission  of  Kansas  and 
touching  on  some  of  the  general  resources  of  the 
South,  Senator  Hammond  put  the  pith  of  his  eco- 
nomic argument  into  the  following  words : 

*'The  strength  of  a  nation  depends  in  a  great 
measure  upon  its  wealth,  and  the  wealth  of  a  nation, 
like  that  of  a  man,  is  to  be  estimated  by  its  surplus 
production.  You  may  go  to  your  trashy  census 
books,  full  of  falsehood  and  nonsense — they  tell  you, 
for  example,  that  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  the 
whole  number  of  house  servants  is  not  equal  to  that 
of  those  in  my  own  house,  and  such  things  as  that. 
You  may  estimate  what  is  made  throughout  the  coun- 
try from  these  census  books,  but  it  is  no  matter  how 
much  is  made  if  it  is  all  consumed.  If  a  man  pos- 
sesses millions  of  dollars  and  consumes  his  income, 
is  he  rich?  Is  he  competent  to  embark  in  any  new 
enterprise  ?  Can  he  build  ships  or  railroads  1  And 
could  a  people  in  that  condition  build  ships  and 
roads  or  go  to  war?  All  the  enterprises  of  peace 
and  war  depend  upon  the  surplus  productions  of  a 
people.  They  may  be  happy,  they  may  be  comfort- 
able, they  may  enjoy  themselves  in  consuming  what 
they  make;  but  they  are  not  rich,  they  are  not 
strong.  It  appears,  by  going  to  the  reports  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  which  are  authentic, 
that  last  year  the  United  States  exported  in  round 
numbers  $279,000,000  worth  of  domestic  produce, 
excluding  gold  and  foreign  merchandise  re-exported. 
Of  this  amount  $158,000,000  worth  is  the  clear  prod- 
uce of  the  South,  articles  that  are  not  and  cannot 
be  made  at  the  North.  There  are  then  $80,000,000 
worth  of  exports  of  products  of  the  forest,  provi- 
sions, and  breadstuffs.  If  we  assume  that  the  South 
made  but  one-third  of  these,  and  I  think  that  is  a 


HAMMOND  ON  POWER  OF  COTTON     237 

low  calculation,  our  exports  were  $185,000,000,  leav- 
ing to  the  North  less  than  $95,000,000. 

**In  addition  to  this,  we  sent  to  the  North  $30,- 
000,000  worth  of  cotton,  which  is  not  counted  in  the 
exports.  We  sent  to  her  seven  or  eight  millions 
worth  of  tobacco,  which  is  not  counted  in  the  exports. 
We  sent  naval  stores,  lumber,  rice,  and  many  other 
minor  articles.  There  is  no  doubt  that  we  sent  to 
the  North  $40,000,000  in  addition;  but  suppose  the 
amount  to  be  $35,000,000,  it  will  give  us  a  surplus 
production  of  $220,000,000.  But  the  recorded  ex- 
ports of  the  South  now  (1858)  are  greater  than  the 
whole  exports  of  the  United  States  in  any  year  be- 
fore 1856.  They  are  greater  than  the  whole  average 
exports  of  the  United  States  for  the  last  twelve 
years  including  the  two  extraordinary  years  of  1856 
and  1857.  They  are  nearly  double  the  amount  of 
the  average  exports  of  the  twelve  preceding  years. 
If  I  am  right  in  my  calculations  as  to  $220,000,000  of 
surplus  produce,  there  is  not  a  nation  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  with  any  numerous  population,  that  can 
compete  with  us  in  produce  per  capita.  It  amounts 
to  $16.66  per  head,  supposing  that  we  have  twelve 
million  people.  England,  with  all  her  accumulated 
wealth,  with  her  concentrated  and  educated  energy, 
makes  but  sixteen  and  a  half  dollars  of  surplus  pro- 
duction per  head.  I  have  not  made  a  calculation  as 
to  the  North,  with  her  $95,000,000  surplus;  admit- 
ting that  she  exports  as  much  as  we. do,  with  her 
eighteen  millions  of  population  it  would  be  but  little 
over  twelve  dollars  a  head.  But  she  cannot  export 
to  us  and  abroad  exceeding  ten  dollars  a  head  against 
our  sixteen  dollars.  I  know  well  enough  that  the 
North  sends  to  the  South  a  vast  amount  of  the  pro- 
ductions of  her  industry.    I  take  it  for  granted  that 


238         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

she,  at  least,  pays  us  in  that  way  for  the  thirty  or 
forty  million  dollars  worth  of  cotton  and  other  ar- 
ticles we  send  her.  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  she 
sends  us  considerably  more ;  but  to  bring  her  up  to 
our  amount  of  surplus  production;  to  bring  her  up 
to  $220,000,000  a  year,  the  South  must  take  from  her 
$125,000,000;  and  this,  in  addition  to  our  share  of 
the  consumption  of  the  $333,000,000  worth  intro- 
duced into  the  country  from  abroad,  and  paid  for 
chiefly  by  our  own  exports.  The  thing  is  absurd ;  it 
is  impossible ;  it  can  never  appear  anywhere  but  in 
a  book  of  statistics." 

The  Senator,  sure  of  his  premises,  now  proceeded 
to  draw  the  conclusion  that  the  South  could  never 
have  war. 

"With  an  export  of  $220,000,000  under  the  pres- 
ent tariff,  the  South  organized  separately  would 
have  $40,000,000  of  revenue.  With  one-fourth  the 
■present  tariff  she  would  have  a  revenue  adequate  to 
all  her  wants,  for  the  South  would  never  go  to  war ; 
she  would  never  need  an  army  or  a  navy,  beyond  a 
few  garrisons  on  the  frontier  and  a  few  revenue  cut- 
ters. It  is  commerce  that  breeds  war.  It  is  manu- 
factures that  require  to  be  hawked  about  the  world, 
that  give  rise  to  navies  and  commerce.  But  we 
have  nothing  to  do  but  to  take  off  restrictions  on 
foreign  merchandise  and  open  our  ports,  and  the 
whole  world  will  come  to  us  to  trade.  They  will  be 
too  glad  to  bring  and  carry  for  us,  and  we  never 
shall  dream  of  a  war.  Why,  the  South  has  never 
yet  had  a  just  cause  of  war.  Every  time  she  has 
drawn  her  sword  it  has  been  on  the  point  of  honor, 
and  that  point  of  honor  has  been  mainly  loyalty  to 
her  sister  colonies — and  sister  States,  who  have  ever 
since  plundered  and  calumniated  her. 


HAMMOND  ON  POWER  OF  COTTON     239 

"But  if  there  were  no  other  reason  why  we  should 
never  have  war,  would  any  sane  nation  make  war  on 
cotton?  Without  firing  a  gun,  without  drawing  a 
sword,  should  they  make  war  on  us  we  could  bring 
the  whole  world  to  our  feet.  The  South  is  perfectly 
competent  to  go  on,  one,  two  or  three  years  without 
planting  a  seed  of  cotton.  I  believe  that  if  she  was 
to  plant  but  half  her  cotton,  for  three  years  to  come, 
it  would  be  an  immense  advantage  to  her.  I  am  not 
so  sure  but  that  after  three  years*  entire  abstinence 
she  would  come  out  stronger  than  ever  she  was  be- 
fore, and  better  prepared  to  enter  afresh  upon  her 
great  career  of  enterprise.  What  would  happen  if 
no  cotton  was  furnished  for  three  years  ?  I  will  not 
stop  to  depict  what  every  one  can  imagine,  but  this 
is  certain :  England  would  topple  headlong  and  carry 
the  whole  civilized  world  with  her,  save  the  South. 
No,  you  do  not  dare  to  make  war  on  cotton.  No 
power  on  earth  dares  to  make  war  upon  it.  Cotton 
is  King." 


CHAPTER  50 

THE  SOUTH 'S  VALEDICTORY  ' 

Senator  Hammond's  emphasized  use  of  Christy's 
phrase  immediately  gave  it  universal  currency,  and 
sent  it  running  through  the  world  of  commerce  to 
this  day.  Another  phrase,  ** mud-sill,"  has  given 
added  fame  to  his  speech.  After  showing  how  the 
cotton  crop  had  recently  saved  the  North  from 
financial  ruin,  he  claimed  that  the  greatest  strength 
of  the  South,  after  all,  was  not  financial,  but  social ; 
''arising  from  the  harmony  of  her  political  and  so- 
cial institutions."  Speaking  to  this  point,  he  con- 
tinued thus  in  defense  of  Southern  slavery: 

**In  all  social  systems  there  must  be  a  class  to  do 
the  menial  duties,  to  perform  the  drudgery  of  life. 
That  is,  a  class  requiring  but  a  low  order  of  intel- 
lect and  but  little  skill.  Its  requisites  are  vigor, 
docility,  fidelity.  Such  a  class  you  must  have,  or 
you  would  not  have  that  other  class  which  leads 
progress,  civilization,  and  refinement.  It  consti- 
tutes the  very  mud-sill  of  society  and  of  political 
government,  and  you  might  as  well  attempt  to  build 
a  house  in  the  air,  as  to  build  either  the  one  or  the 
other,  except  on  this  mud-sill.  Fortunately  for  the 
South,  she  found  a  race  adapted  to  that  purpose  to 
her  hand.  A  race  inferior  to  her  own,  but  emi- 
nently qualified  in  temper,  in  vigor,  in  docility,  in 
capacity  to  stand  the  climate,  to  answer  all  her  pur- 

iSee  Chapter  49. 

240 


THE  SOUTH'S  VALEIUDTOEYi        241 

poses.  We  use  them  for  our  purpose,  and  call  them 
slaves.  We  found  them  slaves  by  the  *  common  con- 
sent of  mankind,'  which,  according  to  Cicero,  'lex 
natures  est:'  the  highest  proof  of  what  is  Na- 
ture's law.  We  are  old-fashioned  at  the  South  yet; 
it  is  a  word  discarded  now  by  *ears  polite;'  I  will 
not  characterize  that  class  at  the  North  by  that 
term ;  but  you  have  it ;  it  is  there ;  it  is  everywhere ; 
it  is  eternal." 

After  an  expansion  of  this  idea  and  an  inter- 
change of  taunts  with  the  other  side,  the  Senator  ut- 
tered the  eloquent  peroration  that  may  well  serve 
as  the  South 's  defiant  valedictory  to  the  Union  in 
whose  building  she  had  taken  such  large  share : 

**  Transient  and  temporary  causes  have  thus  far 
been  your  preservation.  The  great  West  has  been 
open  to  your  surplus  population,  and  your  hordes  of 
semi-barbarian  immigrants,  who  are  crowding  in 
year  by  year.  They  make  a  great  movement,  and 
you  call  it  progress.  Whither  ?  It  is  progress ;  but 
it  is  progress  towards  Vigilance  Committees.  The 
South  have  sustained  you  in  a  great  measure.  You 
are  our  factors.  You  bring  and  carry  for  us. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  millions  dollars  of  our  money 
passes  annually  through  your  hands.  Much  of  it 
sticks;  all  of  it  assists  to  keep  your  machinery  to- 
gether and  in  motion.  Suppose  we  were  to  dis- 
charge you;  suppose  we  were  to  take  our  business 
out  of  your  hands ;  we  should  consign  you  to  anarchy 
and  poverty.  You  complain  of  the  rule  of  the 
South:  that  has  been  another  cause  that  has  pre- 
served you.  We  have  kept  the  Government  con- 
servative to  the  great  purposes  of  Government. 
We  have  placed  it,  and  kept  it,  upon  the  Constitu- 
tion— and  that  has  been  the  cause  of  your  peace  and 


242         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

prosperity.  The  Senator  from  New  York  says  that 
it  is  about  to  be  at  an  end;  that  you  intend  to  take 
the  Government  from  us ;  that  it  will  pass  from  our 
hands.  Perhaps  what  he  says  is  true;  it  may  be; 
but  do  not  forget — it  can  never  be  forgotten — ^it  is 
written  on  the  brightest  page  of  human  history — 
that  we,  the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  took  our 
country  in  her  infancy,  and,  after  ruling  her  for 
sixty  out  of  the  seventy  years  of  her  existence,  we 
shall  surrender  her  to  you  without  a  stain  upon  her 
honor,  boundless  in  prosperity,  incalculable  in  her 
strength,  the  wonder  and  the  admiration  of  the 
world.  Time  will  show  what  you  will  make  of  her ; 
but  no  time  can  ever  diminish  our  glory  or  your  re- 
sponsibility. ' ' 

Senator  Hammond,  whatever  may  be  thought  of 
his  general  argument,  did  not  overstate  the  immense 
commercial  preeminence  to  which  cotton  had  by  this 
time  ascended.  The  Report  on  Commerce  and  Navi- 
gation for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1859,^  shows 
that  of  all  products  of  the  forest  and  of  agriculture 
the  North  exported  goods  to  the  value  of  $45,305,541, 
as  against  $193,399,618  from  the  South,  of  which 
$161,434,923  must  be  set  to  the  credit  of  cotton. 
Tested  from  the  standpoint  of  national  manufac- 
tures, regardless  of  exportation,  cotton  shows  a 
similar  striking  importance;  its  value  as  a  manu- 
factured product  in  1860  being  $115,681,774,  as 
against  $73,454,000  for  wool,  and  an  almost  equal 
amount  for  forged,  rolled,  wrought,  and  cast  iron 
taken  together. 

Thus  cotton  had  immeasurably  enriched  the  coun- 
try. North  and  South,  since  the  year  (1784)  when 
eight  bags  were  seized  on  an  American  vessel  at 

2  See  Appendix  F:2b. 


THE  SOUTH 'S  VALEDICTOKY         243 

Liverpool,  upon  the  ground  that  it  could  not 
have  been  grown  in  North  America,  and  there- 
fore the  existing  navigation  laws  must  have  been 
violated.^  No  account  can  be  taken  in  these  figures 
of  the  enormous  stimulus  which  the  invention  of  the 
series  of  cotton  machines  exercised  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  wool  and  in  numerous  other  directions.  But 
the  price  which  America  paid  for  the  introduction 
and  use  of  cotton  was  sectionalism,  slavery,  and  war. 

8  See  Webster's  note  to  7th  of  March  Speech,  page  218. 


CHAPTER  51 

SECESSIOir  AND  FACTIONALISM 

Preceding  chapters  have  traced  the  course  by 
which  the  haphazard  factions  of  the  early  American 
Union  finally  gravitated  into  two  great  groups,  or 
sections,  ready  for  collision.  The  thirteen  original 
States,  after  the  welding  influence  of  a  common  cause 
had  ceased  to  bind  them,  were  like  so  many  shots 
poured  out  on  the  floor — utterly  wanting  cohesion; 
but,  long  before  1861,  and  with  augmented  number 
and  power,  they  had  been  molten  into  two  hostile 
masses,  arrayed  for  the  propulsion  of  battle.  The 
question  of  slavery,  at  length  fiercely  sectional,  had 
become  so  through  the  cotton  influence.  The  dogma 
of  States-rights,  at  last  jealously  and  distinctively 
Southern,  had  once  been  held  in  the  North  quite  as 
tenaciously  as  by  the  South. 

So  also  was  it  with  the  doctrine  of  Secession.  As 
long  as  this  remained  only  an  abstract  question,  dis- 
entangled from  practical  implications,  the  right  of  a 
State  to  secede  had  been  supported  by  academic 
argument  on  both  sides  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line, 
and  supported  earnestly.  Even  Abraham  Lincoln 
had  said:  *'Any  people  anywhere  being  inclined 
and  having  the  power  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and 
shake  off  the  existing  government,  and  form  a  new 
one  that  suits  them  better.  This  is  a  most  valuable, 
a  most  sacred  right — a  right  which  we  hope  and  be- 
lieve is  to  liberate  the  world.    Nor  is  this  right  con- 

244 


SECESSION  AND  FACTIONALISM      245 

fined  to  cases  in  which  the  whole  people  of  an  exist- 
ing government  may  choose  to  exercise  it.  Any  por- 
tion of  such  people  that  can  may  revolutionize  and 
make  their  own  of  so  much  of  the  territory  as  they 
inhabit."! 

The  slave  power  had  no  more  bitter  and  persistent 
enemy  than  John  Quincy  Adams,  yet  Jefferson 
Davis  himself  could  not  have  argued  more  forcibly 
for  the  expediency  of  disunion  than  did  this  former 
President  of  the  United  States  at  the  semi-centennial 
"Jubilee  of  the  Constitution"  held  in  New  York 
City  in  1839: 

**If  the  day  should  ever  come  (may  Heaven  avert 
it!)"  he  said,  "when  the  affections  of  the  people  of 
these  States  shall  be  alienated  from  each  other,  when 
the  fraternal  spirit  shall  give  way  to  cold  indiffer- 
ence, or  collisions  of  interest  shall  fester  into  hatred, 
the  bands  of  political  association  will  not  long  hold 
together  parties  no  longer  attracted  by  the  magnet- 
ism of  conciliated  interests  and  kindly  sympathies; 
and  far  better  wiU  it  be  for  the  people  of  the  dis- 
united States  to  part  in  friendship  from  each  other 
than  to  be  held  together  by  constraint.  Then  will 
be  the  time  for  reverting  to  the  precedent  which  oc- 
curred at  the  formation  and  adoption  of  the  Consti- 
tution, to  form  again  a  more  perfect  union  by  dis- 
solving that  which  could  no  longer  bind,  and  to  leave 
the  separated  parts  to  be  reunited  by  the  law  of 
political  gravitation  to  the  center. ' '  ^ 

Later,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  John  Quincy 
Adams  (on  January  21,  1842),  created  an  uproar  by 
actually  offering  a  petition  from  citizens  of  Haver- 

1  In  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  12,  1848 : 
Lincoln's  Works,  as  cited,  vol.  i,  p.  105.  See  also  Goldwin  Smith 
in  The  United  States;  an  Outline  of  Political  History:  New 
York,  1899;   p.  248. 

2  C.  F.  Adams,  Studies  Military  and  Diplomatic:     New  York,  1911. 


246         COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

hill,  Massachusetts,  praying  the  House  '*  immediately 
to  adopt  measures  peaceably  to  dissolve  the  union  of 
these  States,"  because  of  the  incompatibility  be- 
tween free  and  slave-holding  communities.  We 
have  already  noted  the  speech  delivered  by  Josiah 
Quincy  in  1811  (see  page  194).  On  that  occasion, 
however,  no  reprimand  was  administered;  but  in 
1842  the  question  had  become  so  embittered  that 
Adams  was  accused  of  a  ''high  breach  of  privilege, 
a  contempt  offered  to  this  House,  a  direct  proposi- 
tion to  the  Legislature  and  each  member  of  it  to 
commit  perjury,  and  involving  necessarily  in  its  exe- 
cution and  its  consequences  the  destruction  of  our 
country  and  the  crime  of  high  treason. ' '  ^ 

Adams  was  not  alone  among  the  Abolitionists  in 
his  attitude  as  to  ''incompatibility."  Wendell  Phil- 
lips said  of  the  South  in  1861:  "Here  are  a  series 
of  States,  girdling  the  Gulf,  who  think  that  their  pe- 
culiar institutions  require  a  separate  government. 
They  have  a  right  to  settle  that  question  without  ap- 
pealing to  you  or  me;"  while  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison, frankly  confessing  that  the  Constitution  es- 
tablished slavery,  had  blasphemed  that  idol,  calling 
it  an  agreement  with  hell  and  a  covenant  with  death, 
and  at  last  publicly  burning  it  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
1854,  at  Framingham,  in  Massachusetts  ^ — the  State 
which  in  1814  had  proposed  not  only  to  secede  from 
the  Union,  but  also  to  fight  it  (see  page  195).  Writ- 
ing to  Lafayette  of  the  War  of  1812,  Jefferson 
quaintly  said  that  four  of  the  Northern  States  were 
attached  to  the  Union  only  as  inanimate  objects 
might  be  attached  to  a  living  man.    Alexander  John- 

3  J.  T.  Morse,  Jr.,  J.  Q.  Adams:     Boston,  1895;  pp.  281-283. 
*  Oliver  Johnson,  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison  and  His  Times:     Boston, 
1880;  pp.  336,  348.     See  also  Rhodes,  ii,  57. 


SECESSION  AND  FACTIONALISM      247 

ston  has  written,  indeed,  that  almost  every  State  in 
the  Union  has  ''in  turn  declared  its  own  sovereignty, 
and  denounced  as  almost  treasonable  similar  declara- 
tions in  other  cases  by  other  States."  ^ 

8  Cited  by  H.  W.  Elson  in  his  History  of  the  United  States:     New 
York,  1904  J  page  626,  note. 


CHAPTER  52 

SECESSION   AND   THE   CONSTITUTION  * 

The  cause  of  this  singular  historical  paradox  in- 
heres in  the  familiar  fact  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  is  really  a  complex  of  compromises; 
the  reconciliation  of  its  doctrine  of  state  freedom 
with  that  of  a  central  sovereignty  being  in  the  ab- 
stract as  difficult  as  the  analogous  theological  puzzle 
of  free  will  as  related  to  the  Divine  sovereignty.  Re- 
verting to  the  Constitutional  struggle  of  1787,  Pro- 
fessor Gordy  has  said,  in  his  work  on  **  Political  Par- 
ties'': *'The  convention  framed  a  Constitution  by 
the  adoption  of  which  thirteen  peoples  imagining 
themselves  still  independent  and  sovereign,  really 
acknowledged  themselves  to  be  but  parts  of  a  single 
political  whole.  But  they  made  this  acknowledg- 
ment unconsciously.  They  continued  to  think  of 
themselves  as  sovereigns,  who  indeed  permitted  an 
agent  to  exercise  some  of  their  functions  for  them, 
but  who  had  not  abdicated  their  thrones.  If  the 
Constitution  had  contained  a  definite  statement  of 
the  actual  fact ;  if  it  had  said  that  to  adopt  it  was  to 
acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  the  one  American 
people,  no  part  of  which  could  sever  its  connections 
from  the  rest  without  the  consent  of  the  whole,  it 
would  probably  have  been  rejected  by  every  State 
in  the  Union. ' '  ^ 

*  See  also  Chapter  39. 

1  Cited  by  C.  F.  Adams  in  Studies  Military  and  Diplomatic: 
New  York,  1911;  p.  211,  note. 

248 


SECESSION  AND  THE  CONSTITUTION     249 

Henry  Cabot  Lodge  has  said  practically  the  same 
thing  in  his  Life  of  Webster:  ''When  the  Consti- 
tution was  adopted  by  the  votes  of  States  at  Phila- 
delphia, and  accepted  by  the  votes  of  States  in  popu- 
lar conventions,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  was  not  a 
man  in  the  country,  from  Washington  and  Hamilton, 
on  the  one  side,  to  George  Clinton  and  George  Mason, 
on  the  other,  who  regarded  the  new  system  as  any- 
thing but  an  experiment  entered  on  by  the  States, 
and  from  which  each  and  every  State  had  the  right 
peaceably  to  withdraw,  a  right  which  was  very  likely 
to  be  exercised. ' '  ^ 

The  late  Charles  Francis  Adams,  a  Union  soldier 
as  well  as  a  distinguished  historical  scholar,  com- 
ments on  these  views  in  his  valuable  book  of  "Mili- 
tary Studies"  and  gives  his  own  opinion  as  follows: 

''When  the  Federal  Constitution  was  framed  and 
adopted, — an  indissoluble  Union  of  indestructible 
States, — what  was  the  law  of  treason? — to  what  or 
to  whom,  in  case  of  final  issue,  did  the  average  citi- 
zen owe  allegiance?  Was  it  to  the  Union  or  to  his 
State  ?  As  a  practical  question,  seeing  things  as  they 
then  were, — sweeping  aside  all  incontrovertible  legal 
arguments  and  metaphysical  disquisitions, — I  do  not 
think  the  answer  admits  of  doubt.  If  put  in  1788, 
or  indeed  at  any  time  anterior  to  1825,  the  imme- 
diate reply  of  nine  men  out  of  ten  in  the  Northern 
States,  and  of  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  in  the 
Southern  States,  would  have  been  that,  as  between 
the  Union  and  the  State,  ultimate  allegiance  was  due 
to  the  State.— From  1788  to  1861,  in  case  of  direct 
and  insoluble  issue  between  sovereign  State  and  sov- 
ereign Nation,  every  man  was  not  only  free  to  de- 
cide, but  had  to  decide  the  question  of  ultimate  alle- 

2  Daniel  Webster,  as  cited,  pp.  176-177. 


250        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

giance  for  himself;  and,  whichever  way  he  decided, 
almost  equally  good  grounds  in  justification  thereof 
could  be  alleged.  The  Constitution  gave  him  two 
masters.  Both  he  could  not  serve ;  and  the  average 
man  decided  which  to  serve  in  the  light  of  sentiment, 
tradition  and  environment.  Of  this  I  feel  as  his- 
torically confident  as  I  can  feel  of  any  fact  not  mat- 
ter of  absolute  record  or  susceptible  of  demonstra- 
tion." ^ 

s  studies  Military,  etc.,  pp.  212,  216. 


CHAPTER  53 

WAS   SECESSION   TAUGHT   AT  WEST   POINT? 

Me.  Adams,  having  ''looked  up  the  matter  with  the 
utmost  care,'*  confirms  the  widespread  belief  that 
Rawle's  ''View  of  the  Constitution"  was  used  as  a 
text-book  at  West  Point  when  Robert  E.  Lee  and 
Jefferson  Davis  were  students  there.  In  spite  of  de- 
nials by  General  J.  W.  Latta  and  others,  testimony 
on  this  question  seems  to  be  almost  conclusive,  in- 
cluding not  only  the  published  opinions  of  officials  of 
the  Military  Academy,  but  the  declarations  of  Gen- 
erals Fitzhugh  Lee  and  Dabney  H.  Maury,  based  on 
their  personal  experience  as  former  students.^  But 
even  some  of  those  who  question  its  actual  use  by 
Robert  Lee  as  a  text-book  assert  that  Rawle's  "View 
of  the  Constitution"  was  undoubtedly  in  use  at  the 
Academy  during  a  part  of  the  time  he  was  a  student 
there;  as,  for  example,  Mr.  Gamaliel  Bradford,  Jr.^ 
Rawle  himself  was  a  member  of  the  Philadelphia  bar 
during  the  sittings  of  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  1787,  and  afterwards  rose  to  "the  foremost  rank 
of  American  legal  luminaries  in  the  first  third  of  the 
nineteenth  century,"  being  the  principal  author  of 
the  revised  code  of  Pennsylvania.  A  pronounced 
friend  of  the  Union,  he  nevertheless  taught  in  his 
text-book  as  follows : 

iR.  Bingham,  Sectional  Misunderstandings:     Pamphlet  reprinted 
(with  important  preface)  from  N.  A.  Review  for  September,  1904. 

2 Lee  the  American:  Boston,  1912;  p.  33.  See  also  A.  Johnston, 
American  Political  History,  as  cited,  p.  293  S. 

251 


252        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

**If  a  faction  should  attempt  to  subvert  the  Gov- 
ernment of  a  State  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  its 
republican  form,  the  national  power  of  the  Union 
could  be  called  forth  to  subdue  it.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be 
understood  that  its  interposition  would  be  justifiable 
if  a  State  should  determine  to  retire  from  the  Union" 
(page  289).  **It  depends  on  the  State  itself  whether 
it  will  continue  a  member  of  the  Union.  To  deny 
this  right  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  principle  on 
which  all  our  political  systems  are  founded,  which  is, 
that  the  people  have  in  all  cases  the  right  to  de- 
termine how  they  shall  be  governed"  (page  289). 
"The  States  may  then  wholly  withdraw  from  the 
Union"  (page  290).  *'If  a  majority  of  the  people  of 
a  State  deliberately  and  peacefully  resolve  to  relin- 
quish the  republican  form  of  government,  they  cease 
to  be  members  of  the  Union"  (page  292).  "The 
secession  of  a  State  from  the  Union  depends  on  the 
will  of  the  people  of  such  State"  (page  295).  "This 
right  must  be  considered  an  ingredient  in  the  original 
composition  of  the  general  government,  and  the  doc- 
trine heretofore  presented  in  regard  to  the  inde- 
feasible nature  of  personal  allegiance  is  so  far  quali- 
fied in  respect  to  allegiance  to  the  United  States" 
(page  289).3 

8  See  also  pages  296,  297,  298,  A  View  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  William  Rawie:     Philadelphia,   1825. 


CHAPTER  54 

COTTON   LOCALIZES   SECESSION 

It  seems  as  clear  as  day  that  the  doctrine  of  Seces- 
sion did  not  become  exclusively  Southern  and  sec- 
tional until  the  Great  Controversies  drove  it  over 
to  the  Southern  alinement.  As  with  the  questions  of 
States-rights  and  slavery,  so  also  in  this  case  the 
far-reaching  influence  of  the  huge  cotton  industry 
wove  its  potent  political  spell.  Cotton  made  the 
South  a  free  trade  section  and  the  North  protective ; 
cotton  lured  the  South  back  to  slavery ;  cotton  drove 
the  South  to  seek  the  annexation  of  new  lands  for  its 
plentiful  production,  and  to  insist  on  the  maintenance 
of  slave  labor  on  those  lands  in  order  to  produce  it ; 
cotton  drove  the  South  to  an  extreme  States-rights 
position  in  those  great  Congressional  struggles  in 
which  the  efforts  for  territorial  expansion  became 
inextricably  involved;  and  cotton  at  last  drove  the 
South  to  translate  extreme  States-rights  into  the 
terms  of  Secession,  while  the  North  step  by  step  lined 
up  on  the  opposite  side  of  all  these  questions,  which 
at  first  had  not  been  sectional  at  all. 


253 


BOOK  V 

COTTON  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY: 
THE  CIVIL  WAR 


CHAPTER  55 

COTTON   AND  THE  SINEWS   OF   WAB 

Senator  Hammond's  famous  speech  of  the  fourth 
of  March,  1858  (see  Chapters  49,  50)  was  not  only 
the  South 's  valedictory  to  the  Union,  it  was  also  the 
South 's  declaration  of  economic  independence. 
** Cotton  is  king"  became  such  a  feverish  watchword 
on  Southern  lips  that  the  more  cautious  citizens 
warned  the  public,  when  hostilities  seemed  to  be  im- 
minent, not  to  ''attach  to  it  the  power  imputed  of 
old  to  an  incantation,  and  indulge  in  vague  and,  per- 
haps, extravagant  notions  of  its  efficiency.  * '  ^  Jef- 
ferson Davis,  in  his  inaugural  address  as  President 
of  the  provisional  Confederate  Government,  at  Mont- 
gomery,^  mentioned  at  once  the  chief  economic  hope 
of  the  South  and  its  only  fear,  in  the  following  strik- 
ing sentences : 

*'An  agricultural  people — whose  chief  interest  is 
the  export  of  a  commodity  required  in  every  manu- 
facturing conununity,  our  true  policy  is  peace  and 
the  freest  trade  wMch  our  necessities  will  permit. 
It  is  alike  our  interest,  and  that  of  all  those  to 
whom  we  would  sell  and  from  whom  we  would  buy, 
that  there  should  be  the  fewest  practicable  restric- 
tions upon  the  interchange  of  commodities. — This 
common  interest  of  the  producer  and  consumer  can 
only  be  interrupted  by  an  exterior  force,  which 

1  Cited  by  E.  von  Halle  in  BaumwoUproduktion,  vol.  ii,  p.  230. 

2  Feb.  18,  1861. 

267 


258        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

should  obstruct  its  transmission  to  foreign  markets 
— a  course  of  conduct  which  would  be  as  unjust  to- 
ward us  as  it  would  be  detrimental  to  the  manufac- 
turing and  commercial  interests  abroad. ' '  * 

Jefferson  Davis  was  talking  to  England  when  he 
uttered  those  sentences:  reminding  England  of  its 
dependence  on  the  South  for  the  staple  of  its  leading 
industry,  promising  England  the  coveted  policy  of 
free  trade,  and  warning  England  of  the  mischief 
which  the  North  might  inflict  on  its  interests  by  a 
possible  blockade.  His  reminder  and  his  promise 
were  diplomacy  of  the  highest  order,  and  his  warning 
proved  to  be  prophecy.  So  great  was  his  faith  in 
the  incantation,  ** Cotton  is  king,"  that  after  his 
prophecy  had  been  fulfilled  he  expected  the  blockade 
to  bring  about  automatically  recognition  from  Eng- 
land, which  was  the  substance  of  the  thing  chiefly 
hoped  for.  Mrs.  Davis  writes  in  her  biography  that 
**the  President  and  his  advisers  looked  to  the  strin- 
gency of  the  English  cotton  market,  and  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  manufactories,  to  send  up  a  ground  swell 
from  the  English  operatives,  that  would  compel 
recognition. — Foreign  recognition  was  looked  for- 
ward to  as  an  assured  fact. ' '  ^  Schwab  says  that  in 
the  Montgomery  Convention  of  1861  the  sentiment 
already  prevailed  that  a  stoppage  of  the  supply  of 
cotton  would  soon  bring  the  commercial  nations,  es- 
pecially the  North  and  Great  Britain,  to  terms,  and 
an  embargo  upon  that  staple  was  looked  upon  with 
favor.^  And  the  correspondent  of  the  London 
Times,  writing   from   Montgomery,    said:    ''They 

8  Library  of  Southern  Literature,  as  cited,  vol.  iii,  pp.  1268,  1270. 

4  C.  F.  Adams,  Charles  Francis  Adams:     Boston,  1900;  pp.  162- 
163. 

5  J.  C.  Schwab,  The  Confederate  States  of  America:     New  York, 
1901 ;  p.  250. 


COTTON  AND  THE  SINEWS  OF  WAR     259 

firmly  believe  that  the  war  will  not  last  a  year. — 
They  believe  in  the  irresistible  power  of  cotton,  in  the 
natural  alliance  between  manufacturing  England  and 
France  and  the  cotton-producing  slave  States,  and  in 
the  force  of  their  simple  tariff. ' '  ^ 

Visiting  Charleston,  Dr.  Russell  found  the  same 
faith.  A  merchant,  pointing  to  the  wharf  laden  with 
cotton  bales,  exclaimed :  * '  Look  out  there !  There 's 
the  key  will  open  all  our  ports,  and  put  us  into  John 
Bull's  strong-box  as  well."  ^'Rhett  is  also  per- 
suaded," Russell  wrote,  ''that  the  Lord  Chancellor 
sits  on  a  cotton  bale.""^  The  Southerners  agreed 
with  one  of  the  characters  of  Thucydides  in  believing 
that  war  is  not  merely  an  affair  of  arms,  but  of 
money,  which  gives  to  arms  their  use.  Theodore 
Price  has  recently  expressed  the  opinion  that  with- 
out cotton  it  is  entirely  improbable  that  the  war 
would  ever  have  been  fought,  and  that  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  whether  the  Confederate  States  would  have 
seceded  had  they  not  felt  that  because  of  England's 
dependence  on  American  cotton  they  could  rely  upon 
her  support,  and  on  British  disregard  of  the  teach- 
ings of  John  Bright.®  M.  B.  Hammond,  another  ex- 
pert, says  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  reliance  which 
the  architects  of  the  ''Great  Rebellion"  placed  on 
cotton  as  a  means  of  obtaining  revenue,  it  is  doubtful 
if  the  war  would  have  been  undertaken.  He  quotes 
DeBow,  the  great  war-time  economist  of  the  South, 
as  saying  to  his  people,  of  cotton:  "To  the  slave- 
holding  States,  it  is  the  great  source  of  their  power 
and  their  wealth,  and  the  main  security  for  their  pe- 
culiar institutions. — Let  us  teach  our  children  to  hold 

6  Adams,  as  just  cited,  162. 

^  Cited  by  Rhodes,  iii,  416.     See  p.  40  of  this  volume. 

8 The  Outlook:    New  York,  March  28,  1914;  p.  720. 


260        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

the  cotton  plant  in  one  hand  and  a  sword  in  the 
other,  ever  ready  to  defend  it  as  the  source  of  com- 
mercial power  abroad,  and,  through  that,  of  inde- 
pendence at  home. "  ^ 

9  The  Cotton  Industry,  as  cited,  pp.  64,  257. 

Note. — When  the  war  broke  out,  the  South  paid  instantly  a 
very  heavy  penalty  for  her  absorption  in  cotton  cultivation  at  the 
expense  of  manufactures.  As  Ashley  says,  "The  South  had  large 
natural  resources,  but  they  were  imdeveloped.  She  had  not  at- 
tempted to  manufacture  what  she  needed,  for  she  had  exported 
almost  everything  she  produced  to  Europe  or  to  the  North,  and 
purchased  usually  from  the  North  even  many  necessities  of  life. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  she  did  not  have  enough  factories 
to  supply  her  people  with  clothing  and  shoes.  There  were  no 
powder  plants,  no  factories  for  making  cannon  or  small  arms,  no 
shipyards.  Rolling-mills  and  iron  foundries  were  uncommon. 
Railways  were  not  particularly  plentiful  in  the  South,  but  they 
had  been  equipped  with  Northern  rails  and  supplied  with  Northern 
locomotives  and  cars.  In  short  the  Soiith  was  entirely  dependent 
on  the  outside  world,  to  which  she  had  given  her  cotton  and  other 
products  for  the  articles  she  needed." — R.  L.  Ashley,  as  cited,  p.  386. 


CHAPTER  56 

THE   COTTON   FAMINE   IN   ENGLAND 

Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  already  quoted  on 
another  subject,  wrote  for  the  **  American  States- 
men" series  of  biographies  a  sketch  of  his  father, 
who,  bearing  the  same  name,  represented  the  United 
States  in  England  during  the  war.  The  preparation 
of  this  biography  led  Mr.  Adams  to  a  careful  study 
of  the  Cotton  Famine  resulting  in  Great  Britain 
from  the  blockade  which  Mr.  Davis  had  predicted; 
and  his  opinion  is  therefore  entitled  to  great  weight. 
Mr.  Adams  says : 

**The  European  cotton  famine  of  1861-63,  at  the 
time  a  very  momentous  affair,  is  now  forgotten ;  yet 
upon  it  hung  the  fate  of  the  American  Union.^ — The 
story  of  that  Lancashire  Cotton  Famine  of  1861  to 
1864  has  never  been  adequately  told  in  connection 
with  our  Civil  War.  Simply  ignored  by  the  standard 
historians,  it  was  yet  the  Confederacy's  fiercest  fight, 
and  its  most  decisive  as  well  as  far-reaching  defeat. 
A  momentous  conflict,  the  supremacy  of  the  Union 
on  the  ocean  hung  on  its  issue;  and  upon  that  su- 
premacy depended  every  considerable  land  opera- 
tion: the  retention  by  the  Confederacy  of  New 
Orleans,  and  the  consequent  control  of  the  Missis- 
sippi; Sherman's  march  to  the  sea;  the  movement 
through  the  Carolinas ;  the  operations  before  Peters- 
burg ;  generally,  the  maintenance  of  the  Confederate 

1  Charles  Francis  Adams:     Boston,  1900;  pp.  265-266.     ' 

261 


262        COTTON  AS  A  WOKLD  POWER 

armies  in  the  field.  It  is  in  fact  no  exaggeration  to 
assert  that  both  the  conception  and  the  carrying  out 
of  every  large  Union  operation  of  the  war  without  a 
single  exception  hinged  and  depended  on  complete 
national  maritime  supremacy.  It  is  equally  indis- 
putable that  the  struggle  in  Lancashire  was  decisive 
of  that  supremacy.  As  Lee  himself  admitted  in  the 
death  agony  of  the  Confederacy,  he  had  never  be- 
lieved it  could  in  the  long  run  make  good  its  inde- 
pendence 'unless  foreign  powers  should,  directly  or 
indirectly,  assist'  it  in  so  doing.  Thus,  strange  as  it 
sounds,  it  follows  as  a  logical  sequence  that  Lee  and 
his  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  were  first  reduced  to 
inanition,  and  finally  compelled  to  succumb,  as  the 
result  of  events  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
largely  stimulated  by  a  moral  purpose  over  which 
they  could  exert  no  control.  The  great  and  loudly 
trumpeted  cotton  campaign  of  the  Confederacy  was 
its  most  signal  failure ;  and  that  failure  was  decisive 
of  the  war. "  ^ 

Many  foreign  students  of  Confederate  history  are 
strongly  inclined  to  think,  with  Mr.  Adams,  that  the 
blockade  was  the  paramount  cause  of  Southern  de- 
feat. As  an  example,  we  may  translate  the  opinion 
of  **Nauticus,*'  writing  in  his  famous  year-book 
for  1900.3 

*'The  blockade  of  the  South,*'  says  this  able 
authority,  endorsing  Admiral  Porter, — *4.e.,  the  sea- 
power  of  the  North,  contributed  more  to  the  down- 

2  studies  Military  and  Diplomatic:  New  York,  1911;  pp. 
317-318. 

sBeitrftge  zur  Flotten-Novelle ;  von  Nauticus:  Berlin,  1900;  pp. 
113-114.  For  an  extended  German  account  of  the  blockade,  see 
E.  von  Halle,  as  cited,  Zweiter  Teil:  Sezessionskrieg  und  Rekon- 
struktion  (Leipzig,  1906);  pp.  140-229.  A  study  of  Die  Baum- 
woUhungersnot  in  Lancashire  is  given  in  the  same  volume,  pp. 
256-265. 


THE  COTTON  FAMINE  IN  ENGLAND     263 

fall  of  the  South  than  all  other  military  operations 
put  together.  That  is  to  say,  the  South,  with  its 
revenues,  was  wholly  dependent  on  freedom  of  ex- 
port for  its  land  products,  such  as  cotton,  sugar,  to- 
bacco, etc.,  and  its  war  supplies,  besides  machinery, 
wheat,  peas,  and  potatoes,  it  had  to  obtain  from  out- 
side. Through  the  gradually  expanded  blockade  on 
all  the  coasts  of  the  South  (roundly,  3,000  sea-miles 
in  length),  which  was  vigorously  carried  out  by 
means  of  313  steamers  and  105  sailing  vessels,  the 
sea  traffic  of  the  South  was  as  good  as  wholly  cut  off ; 
at  all  events,  the  blockade  sufficed  more  and  more  to 
break  altogether  the  power  of  resistance  of  the  brave 
Southern  army. — Want  and  misery  everywhere  was 
the  frightful  work  of  the  blockade,  which  prepared 
and  accomplished  the  defeat  of  the  South." 

Many  American  judgments  to  the  same  effect 
might  be  cited,  of  which  perhaps  the  most  recent 
from  an  authoritative  Northern  pen  has  been  ex- 
pressed by  Professor  George  W.  Kirchwey,  as  fol- 
lows :  *  *  The  exhaustion  of  the  South,  which,  in  the 
last  analysis,  gave  the  North  the  victory  in  our  own 
Civil  War,  was  mainly  due  to  the  effectiveness  of  our 
blockade  and  the  thoroughness  with  which  we  acted 
on  the  principle  of  making  war  by  starvation."^ 

Even  a  brief  review  of  the  facts  of  the  Cotton 
Famine  in  England  will  give  point  to  these  impres- 
sive opinions.  According  to  the  London  Times  of 
September  19, 1861,^  English  cotton  manufacture  had 
grown  to  such  enormous  proportions  as  to  support 
one-fifth  of  the  entire  population,  with  an  annual 
pay-roll  of  $55,000,000.  Over  a  thousand  million 
pounds  of  cotton  were  consumed  every  year,  pro- 

*  Editorial  article  in  Los  Angeles  Times,  Feb.  5,  1915. 
6  Cited  by  Rhodes,  iii,  503,  note, 


264        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

ducing  for  exportation  2,800,000,000  yards  of  cloth 
and  nearly  200,000,000  pounds  of  twist  and  yam. 
There  were  2,650  factories,  of  which  2,195  were  local- 
ized in  Lancashire  County  and  on  the  borders  of  its 
two  Southern  neighbors;  these  factories  containing 
over  30,000,000  spindles  and  350,000  looms  run  by  a 
300,000  horse  power,  and  employing  nearly  half  a 
million  operatives,  of  whom  56  per  cent  were 
females. — Before  the  close  of  the  year  1862,  485,454 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Lancashire  were  recipients  of 
organized  charity! 

The  cause  of  this  swift  and  appalling  catastrophe 
is  not  far  to  seek.  A  vast  population  in  a  limited 
area  was  dependent  for  its  daily  bread  on  the  cotton 
industry.  During  the  year  1860  America  furnished 
84  per  cent,  of  the  entire  European  supply  of  cotton, 
and  during  1862  only  7  per  cent,  while  the  increased 
imports  from  India  had  not  yet  had  time  to  alleviate 
the  situation  even  measurably,  and  the  demand  for 
cotton  in  the  Northern  States  had  meanwhile  become 
so  intense  that  Liverpool  actually  re-exported  52,000 
bales  to  the  United  States  in  1862,  so  that  the  net 
receipts  from  America  were  less  than  1,000  bales  a 
week,  as  against  78,000  bales  in  1860.^ 

And  yet,  in  a  way,  the  English  market  had  been 
protected  from  disaster.  Short  crops  in  the  United 
States  had  long  ago  led  Lancashire  to  fear  a  cotton 
famine,  and  to  organize  in  1858  a  ''Cotton  Supply 
Association,"  with  an  object  identical  with  that  of 
the  British  Cotton  Growing  Association  of  the  pres- 
ent day  (see  chapter  LXXIII) ;  so  that  the  produc- 
tion of  India,  Egypt,  and  Brazil  had  been  stimulated, 
India  alone  furnishing  England  with  563,000  bales 
in  1860.    At  Christmas  of  that  year  the  miUs  were 

6  Ellison,  as  cited,  p.  93. 


THE  COTTON  FAMINE  IN  ENGLAND     265 

running  four  months  behind  their  supply,  investors 
were  rejoicing  in  a  return  of  35  per  cent  on  their 
capital,  and  operatives  happy  with  the  highest  wages 
ever  received.  Moreover,  America  in  1860  pro- 
duced its  record  crop,  which  the  Southern  planter 
marketed  with  unusual  haste  on  account  of  the 
threats  of  trouble,  England  taking  1,650,000  bales 
before  the  war  broke  out.  The  British  market 
was  glutted  to  such  an  extent  that  many  of  the 
mills  actually  shut  down  in  1861,  and  prices  re- 
mained practically  stationary.  The  blockade,  when 
it  came,  was  laughed  at  as  "a  paper  blockade," 
and  indeed  it  seemed  to  be  so,  for  it  is  esti- 
mated that  3,127,568  bales  were  exported  during  the 
year  ending  August  31,  1861.  Mill  owners  even 
longed  for  an  effective  blockade  to  relieve  the  glut 
of  the  market.  As  to  the  duration  of  the  war,  they 
probably  accepted  the  views  conveyed  by  Seward  to 
the  distinguished  son  of  Lancashire,  John  Bright, 
in  September,  1861.  **Tell  him,"  Seward  wrote  to 
Charles  Sumner,  who  was  then  in  England,  **the 
American  question  is  not  half  so  difficult  of  solution 
as  he  thinks.  The  rebellion  is  already  arrested. 
Henceforward  it  will  drag,  languish,  perish;  that  it 
owes  all  the  success  it  attained  to  the  timidity,  hesi- 
tation, and  indirect  favor  of  British  statesmen  and 
the  British  press ;  that  our  interest  in  regard  to  it  is 
Great  Britain's  interest — nothing  different. — ^We 
shall  soon  see  the  war  successful."  '^ 

The  blockade  was  made  effective  during  the  latter 
half  of  1861,  and  with  such  immediate  pinching  re- 
sults that  the  English  Christmas  of  that  year  was 
very  different  from  the  Christmas  preceding;  lead- 
ing the  London  Times  of  December  27  to   say: 

T  Cited  by  Rhodes,  iii,  524,  note. 


266        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

**  Christinas  comes  this  year  on  a  country  bright 
with  sun  and  frost,  but  on  a  people  oppressed  with 
a  national  loss  and  threatened  with  a  formidable 
war.  Already  closed  mills  and  short  time  have 
given  some  part  of  our  population  an  earnest  of 
what  they  may  hereafter  expect;  already  specula- 
tion is  more  careful  than  it  has  been  for  many  years, 
and  the  somber  appearance  of  our  churches  and 
chapels  last  Sunday  portends  a  bad  season  next 
spring. ' ' 

The  same  paper  said  a  fortnight  later:  ** There 
should  have  arrived  by  this  time  at  the  Southern 
ports  of  America,  for  shipment  to  England,  from 
500,000  to  1,000,000  bales  of  last  year's  cotton  crop. 
By  the  latest  estimate  it  was  calculated  that  not 
1,000  bales  had  been  sent  down,  and  it  was  known 
indeed  that  small  stocks  of  cotton  remaining  over 
from  the  preceding  year's  crop  had  been  removed 
from  the  ports  to  the  interior  of  the  country."^ 

During  the  first  half  of  1862,  only  11,500  bales 
reached  England  from  America,  less  than  a  hun- 
dredth of  the  quantity  for  the  same  period  of  the 
year  preceding.  Half  of  the  Lancashire  spindles 
were  idle,  and  the  price  had  jumped  to  thirteen 
pence  a  pound.  In  August  it  went  up  to  twenty 
pence,  and  in  the  following  month  to  half  a  crown. 

A  midsummer  issue  of  the  Saturday  Review  gives 
a  vivid  picture  of  the  crisis  at  its  height :  *  *  The  cot- 
ton famine  is  altogether  the  saddest  thing  that  has 
befallen  this  country  for  many  a  year.  There  have 
been  gloomy  times  enough  before  this.  We  have 
seen  Ireland  perishing  from  actual  starvation,  and 
England  half  ruined  from  commercial  distress. 
War  and  rebellion  have  taken  their  turn  among  the 

"Cited  by  Bhodes,  iii,  626-527,  notes. 


THE  COTTON  FAMINE  IN  ENGLAND     267 

troubles  from  which  a  great  nation  can  scarcely  ex- 
pect to  be  long  free.  But  in  the  worst  of  our  calami- 
ties there  has  seldom  been  so  pitiable  a  sight  as  the 
manufacturing  districts  present  at  this  moment."® 
By  the  close  of  that  awful  year  the  resources  of 
organized  charity  for  the  relief  of  Lancashire  pau- 
perism had  been  exhausted,  and  alms  were  trickling 
in  from  Australia,  Canada,  India,  and  even  China. 
Nearly  a  quarter-million  operatives  were  entirely 
out  of  work,  while  only  121,129  were  working  full 
time,  and,  as  already  noted,  485,454  people  were  re- 
ceiving alms,  comprising  24.1  per  cent  of  the  entire 
population  affected.  Richard  Cobden  wrote  from 
Lancashire  in  November  to  a  friend  in  Staffordshire : 
**Few  people  can  realize  the  appalling  state  of  things 
in  this  neighborhood.  Imagine  that  the  iron,  stone, 
and  coal  were  suddenly  withheld  from  Staffordshire, 
and  it  gives  you  but  an  imperfect  idea  of  what  Lanca- 
shire, with  its  much  larger  population,  is  suffering 
from  the  want  of  cotton ;  it  reverses  the  condition  of 
the  richest  county  in  the  kingdom,  and  makes  it  the 
poorest.  A  capitalist  with  £20,000  invested  in  build- 
ings and  machinery,  may  be  almost  on  a  par  with 
his  operatives  in  destitution,  if  he  be  deprived  of 
the  raw  material  which  alone  makes  his  capital  pro- 
ductive.— Unhappily  the  winter  is  upon  us  to  aggra- 
vate the  sufferings  of  the  working  people."  ^^  The 
London  Times  of  December  31  said :  * '  The  memory 
of  the  year  which  ends  this  day  will  hereafter  be 
chiefly  associated  with  the  American  war  and  its 
consequences  at  home.  No  crisis  in  modern  times 
has  been  so  anxiously  watched,  nor  has  any  Euro- 

9  Rhodes,  iv,  84,  note. 

10  J.   Morley,  The  Life  of   Richard  Ck)bden:     Boston,   1890;    pp. 
580-581. 


268    COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

pean  war  or  revolution  so  seriously  threatened  the 
interests  of  England."  ^^ 

This  was  the  final  climax  of  the  famine.  George 
McHenry  was  too  late  in  1863  with  his  book  on  * '  The 
Cotton  Trade,"  addressed  to  the  people  of  England 
in  behalf  of  the  Confederacy,  and  as  an  apology  of 
slavery.  The  machinery  of  the  mills  had  been  ad- 
justed to  Surat  or  Indian  cotton,  of  which  1,179  bales 
came  in  during  the  year,  together  with  increased 
supplies  from  Egypt,  Turkey,  and  Brazil.  In  1864 
the  supplies  from  India  proved  sufficient  to  meet  the 
demand,  and  the  weekly  number  of  applicants  for 
alms  was  reduced  to  135,000.  Surat  cotton  was 
very  unpopular,  however,  being  short,  harsh,  brittle, 
and  dirty,  requiring  much  harder  work  than  the 
American  staple,  and  at  one- third  less  than  normal 
wages ;  so  that  many  of  the  operatives  preferred  to 
be  treated  as  paupers.  Hanunond  cites  reports  that 
the  word  "Surat"  became  an  odious  epithet  in  Lan- 
cashire, so  that  a  firm  of  brewers  brought  a  libel 
suit  to  recover  damages  for  having  been  maligned  as 
** Surat  brewers;"  and  John  Bright  used  to  tell  a 
story  of  a  church-going  operative  who  once  inter- 
rupted his  pastor's  prayer  for  increased  cotton  sup- 
plies, with  the  fervent  ejaculation,  "Amen,  0  Lord  I 
but  not  Shoorat!"  ^^ 

In  1865  the  famine  ended,  having  cost  the  British 
cotton  trade  in  the  neighborhood  of  $350,000,000,  not 
including  about  $20,000,000  expended  by  the  public 
in  alms.  Many  mill  owners,  says  Ellison,  regained 
a  part  of  their  losses,  but  a  large  number  lost  nearly 

11 E.  D.  Fite,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions  in  the  North  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War:     New  York,  1910;   p.   19,  note. 

12  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  The  Life  of  John  Bright:  Boston,  1913,  p. 
318,  note. 


THE  COTTON  FAMINE  IN  ENGLAND     269 

everything  they  were  worth,  while  many  were  re- 
duced to  bankruptcy. 

John  Bright,  always  an  active  friend  of  the  Union, 
was  astute  enough  to  write  to  Sumner,  during  the 
height  of  the  famine:  ''This  country  is  passing 
through  a  wonderful  crisis,  but  our  people  will  be 
kept  alive  by  the  contributions  of  the  country.  I  see 
that  some  one  in  the  States  has  proposed  to  send 
something  to  our  aid.  If  a  few  cargoes  of  flour 
could  come,  say  50,000  barrels,  as  a  gift  from  per- 
sons in  your  Northern  States  to  the  Lancashire 
working  men,  it  would  have  a  prodigious  effect  in 
your  favor  here. ' '  ^^  Three  relief  ships  accordingly 
came  out  from  New  York  to  Liverpool,  laden  with 
bread,  meat,  and  flour;  a  gift  which,  coming  as  it 
did  from  "those  involved  in  the  real  agony  of  war 
to  those  for  whom  that  war  had  occasioned  distress, 
passing  though  sharp,  was  neither  unnoticed  nor 
barren  of  results." 

18  The  same,  p.  309. 


CHAPTER  57 

THE  COTTON  FAMINE  IN  FEANCE 

The  Cotton  Famine  occasioned  no  real  distress  in 
New  England,  although  curtailing,  of  course,  the  op- 
eration of  the  mills.  As  Hammond  points  out,  there 
was  plenty  of  employment  in  the  army  and  in  the 
government  work  shops  for  all  industrious  men, 
while  the  women  readily  found  employment  in  the 
woolen  mills,  which  the  Cotton  Famine  and  the 
government  demand  together  caused  to  be  unusu- 
ally active.  In  Lowell,  where  the  largest  propor- 
tion of  the  cotton  mills  were  idle,  the  deposits  in  the 
savings  banks  largely  increased  during  the  war.^ 

One  result  of  the  scarcity  of  cotton  in  the  North 
appeared  in  various  suggestions  of  a  substitute,  in- 
cluding a  grandiloquent  plan  set  out  by  an  official  of 
the  Geological  Survey  for  introduction  of  the  peren- 
nial Peruvian  variety,  as  follows : 

"The  period  is  not  very  remote  when  hedges, 
most  efl5cient  as  fences,  shall  yield  annual  dividends 
of  cotton ;  ornamental  trees,  blending  the  useful  with 
the  beautiful,  shall  repay  ten-fold  their  cost  and 
culture;  when  the  rugged  heights  of  the  Hudson, 
the  plains  of  New  Jersey,  the  fertile  valleys  of  the 
Keystone  State,  and  the  undulating  prairies  of  the 
great  West  shall  gleam  in  the  sunlight,  white  as  the 
winter  drift,  with  generous  pods  of  democratic 
cotton. ' '  ^ 

1  Hammond's  Cotton  Industry,  p.  265. 

2  Cited  by  Hammond's  Cotton  Industry  (p.  260)  from  Hunt's 
Merchants'  Magazine,  xlvi,  272. 

270 


THE  COTTON  FAMINE  IN  FRANCE     271 

Next  to  England,  France  suffered  most  from  the 
Famine;  consuming  as  she  did  240,000,000  pounds 
annually,  as  against  a  thousand  millions  in  England 
and  364,000,000  in  America.  Practically  all  of  the 
French  supply  was  American.  When  this  was  sud- 
denly cut  off,  300,000  people  in  one  district  were 
made  absolutely  destitute,  subsisting,  according  to 
report,  **by  roaming  at  night  from  house  to  house, 
and  demanding,  rather  than  asking,  alms;"  while 
at  Rouen,  out  of  50,000  operatives  30,000  were  * '  laid 
off,"  and  in  the  surrounding  country  only  one-fifth 
of  the  hand  weavers  had  work. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Louis  Napoleon  at- 
tempted to  intervene.  This  versatile  monarch  had 
already  evinced  keen  interest  in  American  affairs. 
His  troops  were  in  Mexico,  endeavoring  to  restore 
the  prestige  of  the  Latin  race  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere by  setting  a  European  monarch  on  the  throne : 
Maximilian.  The  Confederacy,  presuming  no  doubt 
on  his  lack  of  enthusiasm  for  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  had  sent  Commissioner  Slidell  to  see 
him.  In  July,  1862,  Slidell  offered  him  a  hundred 
thousand  bales  of  cotton  (worth  in  Europe  at  that 
time  twelve  and  a  half  million  dollars)  if  he  would 
send  his  men-of-war  and  break  the  blockade.  After 
considerable  rumination,  and  influenced,  undoubt- 
edly, by  the  sad  results  of  the  Cotton  Famine  in 
France,  the  Emperor  decided  to  interpose  by  calling 
on  Russia  and  England  to  join  him  in  the  so-called 
task  of  ''mediation."  *'My  own  preference,"  he 
said  to  Slidell,  *'is  for  a  proposition  of  an  armistice 
of  six  months ;  this  would  put  a  stop  to  the  effusion 
of  blood,  and  hostilities  would  probably  never  be  re- 
sumed. We  can  urge  it  on  the  high  grounds  of  hu- 
manity and  the  interest  of  the  whole  civilized  world ; 


272        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

if  it  be  refused  by  the  North,  it  will  afford  good  rea- 
son for  recognition,  and  perhaps  for  more  active 
intervention."^ 

Russia,  *'our  only  well-wisher  in  Europe," 
promptly  declined  to  act  with  Napoleon.  On  the  de- 
cision of  England  rested  the  fate  of  the  war.  It  was 
at  this  critical  juncture  that  our  American  minister 
wrote :  "A  word  from  the  Prime  Minister,  suggest- 
ing that  the  time  had  arrived  for  recognition  [of 
the  Confederacy],  would  meet  with  unanimous  re- 
sponse in  the  affirmative."  Such  was  at  one  time 
the  feeling  in  England  against  the  Union  and  in  be- 
half of  the  South. 

» Verified  by  Rhodes,  iv,  346.  For  an  extremely  interesting  ac- 
count of  Napoleon  in  Slidell's  own  words,  see  Proceedings  of  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc'y,  May,  1914;  p.  379. 


CHAPTER  58 

NAPOLEON  *S   FAILUEE 

Nothing  gives  a  clearer  idea  of  the  chances  that 
favored  Napoleon's  plans  for  interference  than  ex- 
tracts from  the  letters  written  to  Charles  Sumner 
in  December,  1861,  by  Richard  Cobden,  who,  like 
Bright,  was  an  earnest  friend  of  the  Union,  although 
at  one  time  himself  engaged  in  the  cotton  trade. 

*'From  all  that  I  hear  from  France,"  he  says,  *'the 
trade  of  that  country  is  dreadfully  damaged,  and 
I  feel  convinced  the  Emperor  would  be  supported  by 
his  people  if  he  were  to  enter  into  alliance  with  Eng- 
land to  abolish  the  blockade  and  recognize  the  South. 
The  French  are  inconvenienced  in  many  ways  by 
your  blockade,  and  especially  in  their  relations  with 
New  Orleans,  which  are  more  important  to  them  in 
exports  than  to  us. — I  am  not  justifying  any  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  Europe;  but  it  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  have  the  whole  civilized  world  undergoing 
privations  and  sufferings  which  they  lay  at  the  door 
of  the  North,  thus  making  it  the  interest  of  their 
governments  to  interfere  with  you. — The  state  of 
modern  society,  where  you  have  millions  of  laborers 
in  Europe  depending  for  the  means  of  employment 
on  a  regular  supply  of  raw  materials  brought  from 
another  continent,  to  say  nothing  of  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  capital  invested  on  the  same  dependence, 
will  necessitate  a  change  in  the  law  of  blockade  and 
other  belligerent  rules. — The  recognition  of  the  in- 

273 


274        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

dependence  of  the  South,  and  the  forcing  of  the  block- 
ade, will  come  to  be  viewed,  about  next  March,  as  a 
matter  of  life  and  death  by  many  millions  of  people 
in  Europe,  and  as  a  question  of  high  political  urgency 
by  the  most  powerful  governments  of  the  world. — 
We  in  England  have  ready  a  fleet  surpassing  in  de- 
structive force  any  naval  armament  the  world  ever 
saw,  exceeding  greatly  the  British  navy  in  the  great 
French  war  in  1810.  This  force  has  been  got  up 
under  false  pretenses.  There  is  always  a  desire  on 
the  part  of  governments  to  use  such  armaments,  by 
way  of  proving  that  they  were  necessary.  France 
was  the  pretense,  and  now  we  have  plenty  of  people 
who  would  be  content  to  see  this  fleet  turned  against 
you."  ^ 

English  feeling  had  been  significantly  indicated  by 
a  proclamation  of  the  belligerency  of  the  Confederacy 
within  a  month  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war;  which 
so  excited  Secretary  Seward  that  he  was  inclined  to 
challenge  a  general  European  combat,  in  the  singular 
belief  that  ''the  presence  of  a  foreign  foe  alone  can 
reconcile  the  disintegrated  States,"  and  *'all  the  hills 
of  South  Carolina  would  pour  forth  their  population 
to  the  rescue."  ^  ** Great  Britain,"  he  wrote  to  his 
wife,  ''is  in  great  danger  of  sympathizing  so  much 
with  the  South,  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  cotton,  as 
to  drive  us  to  make  war  against  her  as  the  ally  of 
the  traitors. ' '  Later  in  the  year  a  war  with  England 
was  indeed  very  narrowly  averted  in  consequence  of 
the  unwarranted  seizure  by  a  United  States  officer  of 
the  two  outward  bound  European  commissioners  of 
the  Confederacy,  Slidell  and  Mason,  from  the  Brit- 
ish steam-packet  Trent.    Thirty  thousand  English 

1  Cited  by  Rhodes,  iii,  529,  531,  notes,  and  535. 

2  Cited  in  Charles  Francis  Adams,  p.  184. 


NAPOLEON'S  FAILURE  275 

troops  were  immediately  despatched  to  Halifax,  and 
ships  hastily  loaded  with  ammunition  and  artillery ; 
but  Lincoln  saved  the  life  of  the  nation  by  disavow- 
ing this  seizure,  and  releasing  Messrs.  Mason  and 
Slidell,  who  proceeded  to  Europe.  It  was  the  latter 
who,  cooperating  with  Mason,  in  London,  from  his 
own  headquarters  in  Paris,  later  almost  succeeded 
in  the  scheme  for  Napoleonic  intervention. 

But  in  the  British  Government  a  diversity  of  sym- 
pathy developed.  The  premier.  Lord  Palmerston, 
had  said  to  Minister  Adams,  immediately  on  his  ar- 
rival in  London:  "We  do  not  like  slavery,  but  we 
want  cotton,  and  we  dislike  very  much  your  Morrill 
tariff."  Earl  Kussell,  the  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  now  inclined  strongly  toward  the  South. 
In  the  May  of  1862  he  had  said :  "Thousands  are  now 
obliged  to  resort  to  the  poor-rates  for  subsistence, 
owing  to  this  blockade,  yet  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment have  not  sought  to  take  advantage  of  the  obvi- 
ous imperfections  of  this  blockade,  in  order  to  de- 
clare it  ineffective.  They  have,  to  the  loss  and  detri- 
ment of  the  British  nation,  scrupulously  observed 
the  duties  of  Great  Britain  to  a  friendly  State.  "^ 
But  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Palmerston:  "I  agree  with  you,  the  time  is  come 
for  offering  mediation  to  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, with  a  view  to  the  recognition  of  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Confederates.  I  agree  further  that,  in 
case  of  failure,  we  ought  ourselves  to  recognize  the 
Southern  States  as  an  independent  State."  ^ 

The  feeling  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
Mr.  Gladstone,  may  be  gathered  from  his  famous 

8  Jefferson  Davis,  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment:    New  York,  1881;  p.  344. 
*  Charles  Francis  Adams,  as  cited. 


276        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

speech  at  Newcastle,  made  in  the  autumn  of  1862, 
when  the  Cotton  Famine  was  at  its  height,  and  just 
at  the  time  when  Louis  Napoleon  was  pressing  for 
armed  intervention. 

** There  is  no  doubt,**  Gladstone  said,  amid  the 
cheering  of  his  Newcastle  audience,  ''that  Jefferson 
Davis  and  other  leaders  of  the  South  have  made  an 
army ;  they  are  making,  it  appears,  a  navy ;  and  they 
have  made  what  is  more  than  either, — they  have 
made  a  nation. — We  may  anticipate  with  certainty 
the  success  of  the  Southern  States  so  far  as  regards 
their  separation  from  the  North.  I  cannot  but  be- 
lieve that  that  event  is  as  certain  as  any  event  yet 
future  and  contingent  can  be." 

It  is  little  wonder  that  Minister  Adams  wrote  in 
his  diary  next  day :  '  *  If  he  be  any  exponent  at  all 
of  the  views  of  the  cabinet,  then  is  my  term  likely  to 
be  very  short. ' '  ^ 

But  it  was  just  at  this  point  that  differences  were 
revealed  in  the  cabinet ;  Sir  George  Lewis,  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  for  War,  going  so  far  as  to  reply  di- 
rectly to  Mr.  Gladstone  by  announcing  publicly  that 
the  time  had  not  yet  come  for  recognition  of  the  Con- 
federacy. The  cabinet  divergence  proved  to  be  so 
serious,  indeed,  that  the  meeting  actually  called  for 
consideration  of  Napoleon's  scheme  was  abandoned; 
the  influence  of  Cobden  and  Bright  being  distinctly 
traceable  in  the  matter,  as  also  the  effective  diplo- 
macy of  the  American  Minister,  of  whom  Lowell 
afterwards  wrote:  ''None  of  our  generals  in  the 
field,  not  Grant  himself,  did  us  better  or  more  try- 
ing service  than  he  in  his  forlorn  outpost  of  Lon- 
don."^   The  divided  mind  of  the  British  Govern- 

6  Charles  Francis  Adams,  as  cited,  pp.  280,  287. 
0  Charles  Francis  Adams,  as  cited,  p.  345. 


NAPOLEON'S  FAILURE  277 

ment  had  been  well  expressed  in  the  initial  remark 
of  the  premier  to  Mr.  Adams,  when  he  informed  him 
that  while  the  English  wanted  cotton,  they  did  not 
like  slavery^ 

'  For  a  careful  study  of  this  chapter  in  international  relations, 
see  A  Crisis  in  Downing  Street,  by  C.  F.  Adams;  Proceedings  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc'y,  May,  1914. 


CHAPTER  59 

THE  BRITISH   WORKING-MAN 

English  feeling  on  the  question  of  slavery  had 
been  strongly  intensified  by  the  wide  reading  of 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  especially  among  cotton  mill 
operatives.  This  remarkable  novel,  the  ''best 
seller"  of  its  day,  had  penetrated  every  corner  of 
Europe,  but  was  devoured  most  eagerly  by  the  idle 
weavers  and  spinners  of  Lancashire,  interested  as 
they  were  in  **the  land  of  cotton"  and  the  cotton 
war,  which  so  vitally  affected  them.  The  melo- 
drama of  the  book  they  accepted  as  sober  realism; 
Uncle  Tom,  in  his  heroic  role  of  philosopher  and 
saint,  being  unquestioningly  regarded  as  the  un- 
varying type  of  his  race,  while  Legree,  the  heavy 
villain,  stood  as  a  truthful  undeviating  symbol  of 
the  Southern  planter.  It  is  of  course  very  much  to 
the  credit  of  these  distressed  victims  of  the  Cotton 
Famine,  however  misled  by  sentimental  and  sensa- 
tional fiction  they  may  have  been,  that  their  emo- 
tions proved  to  be  stronger  than  a  cold  and  calculat- 
ing self-interest,  so  that  the  very  section  of  England 
that  might  most  reasonably  have  been  expected  to 
send  up  a  ''ground  swell"  for  the  Cotton  States, 
swung  its  sympathies  over  to  the  Union. 

There  was,  also,  a  hard-headed  principle  of  com- 
mon sense  commingled  with  the  fervid  British  sym- 
pathy that  now  developed  in  behalf  of  the  North 
among  the  working  people  and  thoughtful  middle 

278 


THE  BRITISH  WORKING-MAN         279 

classes.  Perhaps  the  whole  clear  case  is  nowhere 
better  stated  than  by  Mr.  John  Watts  in  his  book 
on  "The  Facts  of  the  Cotton  Famine:"  ^ 

** There  were  not  wanting  men,"  he  says,  **who 
saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  a  short  way  out  of  the 
difl&culty,  viz.,  by  a  recognition  on  the  part  of  the 
English  Government  of  the  Southern  confederacy  in 
America.  And  meetings  were  called  in  various 
places  to  memorialize  the  Government  to  this  effect. 
Such  meetings  were  always  balanced  by  counter 
meetings,  at  which  it  was  shown  that  simple  recogni- 
tion would  be  waste  of  words;  that  it  would  not 
bring  to  our  shores  a  single  shipload  of  cotton,  un- 
less followed  up  by  an  armed  force  to  break  the 
blockade,  which  of  course  if  adopted  would  be  war ; 
war  in  favor  of  the  slave  confederacy  of  the  South, 
and  against  the  free  North  and  Northwest,  whence 
comes  a  large  proportion  of  our  imported  corn.  In 
addition  to  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  a  nation 
3,000  miles  away,  the  cotton,  if  we  succeeded  in  get- 
ting it,  would  be  stained  with  blood  and  cursed  with 
the  support  of  slavery,  and  would  also  prevent  our 
getting  the  food  which  we  needed  from  the  North 
equally  as  much  as  the  cotton  from  the  South." 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  treated  con- 
temptuously by  the  English  governing  classes  when 
it  came,  moved  the  laboring  people  and  middle 
classes  most  profoundly.  Minister  Adams  writes 
that  on  January  2,  1863,  he  received  a  gentleman 
from  Manchester,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Cotton 
Famine,  then  at  its  worst,  who  brought  an  address 
to  President  Lincoln  from  a  meeting  of  working- 
men  held  on  the  last  day  of  the  just  closed  year.^ 

1  London,  1866;  see  especially  Chapters  viii  and  xii. 

2  Lincoln's  reply   to   this   address   is  well    worth   reading.     In  a 


280        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

*'It  was  quite  a  strong  manifestation  of  good  feel- 
ing," Adams  says.  "There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
now  is  the  time  to  strike  the  popular  heart  here ;  and 
the  effect  may  be  to  checkmate  the  movement  of  the 
aristocracy."  A  little  later  he  writes,  after  the  ad- 
dresses had  begun  to  pour  into  the  Legation  '4n  a 
steady  and  ever-swelling  stream:"  *'It  is  clear 
that  the  current  is  now  setting  strongly  with  us 
among  the  body  of  the  people.  This  may  be  quite 
useful  on  the  approach  of  the  session  of  Parlia- 
ment." ^ 

Of  the  great  mass  meeting  of  January  29,  Cobden 
wrote  to  Sumner  as  follows:  *'I  know  nothing  in 
my  political  experience  so  striking,  as  a  display  of 
spontaneous  public  action,  as  that  of  the  vast  gather- 
ing at  Exeter  Hall,  when,  without  one  attraction  in 
the  form  of  a  popular  orator,  the  vast  building,  its 

letter  "To  the  Working-men  of  Manchester"  dated  Jan.  19,  1863, 
he  said:  "I  know  and  deeply  deplore  the  sufferings  which  the 
working-men  at  Manchester,  and  in  all  Europe,  are  called  to  endure 
in  this  crisis.  It  has  been  often  and  studiously  represented  that 
the  attempt  to  overthrow  this  government,  which  was  built  upon 
the  foundation  of  human  rights,  and  to  substitute  for  it  one  which 
should  rest  exclusively  on  the  basis  of  human  slavery,  was  likely 
to  obtain  the  favor  of  Europe.  Through  the  action  of  our  disloyal 
citizens,  the  working-men  of  Europe  have  been  subjected  to  severe 
trials,  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  their  sanction  to  that  attempt. 
Under  the  circumstances,  I  cannot  but  regard  your  decisive  ut- 
terances upon  the  question  as  an  instance  of  sublime  Christian 
heroism  which  has  not  been  surpassed  in  any  age  or  in  any  country. 
It  is  indeed  an  energetic  and  reinspiring  assurance  of  the  inherent 
power  of  truth,  and  of  the  ultimate  and  universal  triumph  of 
justice,  humanity,  and  freedom.  ,1  do  not  doubt  that  the  senti- 
ments you  have  expressed  will  be  sustained  by  your  great  nation; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  assuring  you 
that  they  will  excite  admiration,  esteem,  and  the  most  reciprocal 
feelings  of  friendship  among  the  American  people.  I  hail  this 
interchange  of  sentiment,  therefore,  as  an  augury  that  whatever 
else  may  happen,  whatever  misfortune  may  befall  your  country 
or  my  own,  the  peace  and  friendship  which  now  exist  between 
the  two  nations  will  be,  as  it  shall  be  my  desire  to  make  them, 
perpetual." — Lincoln's  Complete  Works,  as  cited,  ii,  pp.  301-302. 
8  Adams,  299. 


THE  BRITISH  WORKING-MAN         281 

minor  rooms  and  passages,  and  the  streets  adjoin- 
ing, were  crowded  with  an  enthusiastic  audience. 
That  meeting  has  had  a  powerful  effect  on  our  news- 
papers and  politicians.  It  has  closed  the  mouths  of 
those  who  have  been  advocating  the  side  of  the  South. 
And  I  now  write  to  assure  you  that  any  unfriendly 
act  on  the  part  of  our  Government — ^no  matter  which 
of  our  aristocratic  parties  is  in  power — towards 
your  cause  is  not  to  be  apprehended.  If  an  attempt 
were  made  by  the  Government  in  any  way  to  commit 
us  to  the  South,  a  spirit  would  be  instantly  aroused 
which  would  drive  that  Government  from  power. ' '  * 

So  it  was  that  the  moral  issue  of  slavery  wrought 
a  profound  effect  on  the  British  attitude,  and  prob- 
ably eventually  determined  it.  Slavery,  which  the 
South  had  grown  accustomed  to  regard  as  neces- 
sary to  the  successful  cultivation  of  cotton,  had  be- 
come its  Nemesis ;  not  only  at  home  in  bringing  on 
civil  war,  but  also  abroad  in  its  influence  on  the  re- 
sult of  that  war  when  it  had  come.  Of  this  fact  no 
better  evidence  could  be  cited  than  the  utterances 
of  the  London  organ  of  the  Confederacy,  The  In- 
dex,  published  during  the  war  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
fluencing European  opinion.  After  learning  of  the 
effect  wrought  by  Uncle  Tom  in  Lancashire  and 
elsewhere  throughout  England,  and  of  the  conse- 
quences of  that  effect  then  being  manifested  in  Par- 
liament, The  Index  said: 

"It  is  the  great  peculiarity  of  England  that  the 
heart  of  the  country  is  thoroughly  religious.  The 
plain  issue,  then,  between  the  two  nations,  was  there- 
fore naturally  not  overlooked  by  those  whose  pro- 
gram in  America  was  the  law  of  conscience  over- 
riding the  law  of  the  land ;  and  the  prominence  they 

4  Adams,  301. 


282        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

gave  to  the  slave  question  was  especially  directed 
to  the  religious  public  in  England.  And  well  has 
it  answered  their  purpose.  To  this  very  hour  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  have  no  other  terms  to  ex- 
press the  nature  of  the  conflict.  It  is  to  no  purpose 
that  argument,  fact,  and  experience  have  shown  the 
utter  indifference  of  the  North  to  the  welfare  of  the 
negro ;  the  complete  appreciation  by  the  slaves  them- 
selves of  the  sham  friendship  offered  them;  and, 
still  more,  the  diabolical  preaching  of  the  ministers 
of  God's  word,  who  rely  on  Sharp's  rifles  to  carry 
out  their  doctrines.  The  emancipation  of  the  negro 
from  the  slavery  of  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe's  heroes  is 
the  one  idea  of  the  millions  of  British  who  know  no 
better,  and  do  not  care  to  know.'* 

Bright  and  Cobden,  indeed,  proved  themselves 
capable  of  keen  insight  and  foresight  by  going  so  far 
as  to  say  that  the  cotton  crop  of  the  South  would  be 
better  off  without  slaves.  In  the  June  of  1863  Mr. 
Bright  said :  * '  I  maintain  that  with  a  supply  of  cot- 
ton mainly  derived  from  the  Southern  States,  and 
mainly  raised  by  slave  labor,  two  things  are  indis- 
putable :  First,  that  the  supply  must  always  be  in- 
sufficient, and,  second,  that  it  must  always  be  inse- 
cure.— I  maintain — and  I  believe  my  opinion  will  be 
supported  by  all  those  men  who  are  most  conversant 
with  American  affairs — that  with  slavery  abolished, 
with  freedom  firmly  established  in  the  South,  you 
would  find  in  ten  years  to  come  a  rapid  increase  in 
the  growth  of  cotton,  and  not  only  would  its  growth 
be  rapid,  but  its  permanent  increase  would  be  se- 
cured.— There  is  no  greater  enemy  to  Lancashire,  to 
its  capital  and  to  its  labor,  than  the  man  who  wishes 
the  cotton  agriculture  of  the  Southern  States  to  be 
contmued  under  the  condition  of  slave  labor." 


CHAPTER  60 

NAPOLEON   AND   THE   COTTON  LOAN 

Notwithstanding  the  British  turn  in  favor  of  the 
cause  of  the  North,  Slidell  and  Louis  Napoleon  were 
able  to  give  the  American  Minister  one  more  criti- 
cal engagement  before  retiring  from  the  field  in  de- 
feat. It  is  not  discourteous  to  royalty  to  place  the 
name  of  Slidell  in  precedence  to  that  of  Napoleon, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  students  of  this  dual  rela- 
tionship agree  in  regarding  Slidell  as  a  past  master 
in  the  fine  art  of  **wire  pulling,"  so  that  the  French 
emperor  was  little  more  than  a  marionette  in  his 
hands. 

In  January,  1863,  Slidell  took  advantage  of  the 
acute  stage  which  the  French  Cotton  Famine  had 
reached  to  persuade  Napoleon  to  offer,  on  his  own 
initiative  and  single  handed,  the  services  of  his  gov- 
ernment to  that  of  the  United  States  as  mediator 
with  the  Confederacy.  Upon  President  Lincoln's 
courteous  but  firm  rejection  of  this  proposal,  the 
Emperor  proved  lacking  in  courage  to  proceed  fur- 
ther without  additional  support ;  ^  whereupon  Slidell 
and  Napoleon  renewed  their  endeavor  to  secure  the 
cooperation  of  England. 

Before  pushing  this  plan,  however,  Slidell  assisted 
his  London  colleague,  Mr.  Mason,  in  negotiating  the 
famous  ** Cotton  Loan,"  through  the  French  bank- 

1  Rhodes,  iv,  348. 

283 


284        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

ing  house  of  Erlanger  et  Compagnie.^  This  loan, 
which  was  for  the  sum  of  $15,000,000,  received  secret 
confirmation  from  the  Confederate  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  not  until  the  advertisements  of  it 
appeared  in  foreign  newspapers  did  the  public,  even 
in  the  South,  know  its  details.  The  bonds  were  to 
run  for  twenty  years,  and  bear  7  per  cent  interest; 
each  bond  being  exchangeable  at  face  value  for  New 
Orleans  Middling  cotton  at  the  rate  of  sixpence  the 
pound,  at  any  time  not  later  than  six  months  after 
the  ratification  of  a  peace  treaty  between  the  North 
and  the  South.  As  Middling  was  then  selling  in 
Liverpool  for  twenty-two  pence  a  pound,  and  the 
Confederate  Government  was  known  to  be  holding 
not  less  than  350,000  bales,  the  investment  was  re- 
garded as  perfectly  sound,  provided  the  blockade 
could  be  lifted.  That  foreign  investors  must  have 
had  faith  in  its  lifting,  and  in  the  ultimate  success  of 
the  Confederacy,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  within 
two  days  the  bonds  were  reported  as  being  three 
times  over-subscribed  in  London  alone,  while  the 
total  subscriptions  amounted  to  five  times  the  face 
value  of  the  loan.  Although  the  bonds  fluctuated 
with  the  news  from  the  battle  fields,  they  held  the 
faith  of  foreign  investors  reasonably  firm  even  until 
the  fall  of  Charleston  in  1865,  as  the  English  evi- 
dently believed  that  the  cotton  necessary  for  their 
redemption  could  be  delivered  even  should  the  South 
suffer  defeat ;  and,  in  fact,  assumed  that  in  this  event 
their  redemption  would  be  undertaken  by  the  United 
States  Government  itself.  So  late  as  the  year  1883 
there  came  a  revival  on  the  London  market  of  deal- 
ing in  the  bonds  of  the  Erlanger  Cotton  Loan. 
Proceeds  from  the  sale  of  these  bonds  consti- 

3  Schwab,  as  cited,  p.  31  ff. 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  COTTON  LOAN  285 

tuted  the  main  source  of  the  specie  revenue  of  the 
Confederate  Government,  and  enabled  it  to  pay  for 
the  Alabama  and  other  privateers  secured  during 
the  first  two  years  of  the  war. 


CHAPTER  61 

NAPOLEON,  BOEBUCK,  AND  BEIGHT  * 

The  familiar  incident  of  the  privateer  Alabama 
was  of  course  a  fruitful  source  of  discord  between 
the  Westminster  and  Washington  governments. 
Inasmuch  as  two  formidable  rams  were  also  build- 
ing in  a  British  shipyard,  and  the  inquisitiveness  of 
the  American  Minister  concerning  their  ownership 
was  embarrassing  to  a  cabinet  which  disliked  slavery 
but  wanted  cotton,  Mr.  Slidell  deftly  arranged  this 
matter  of  the  rams  by  transferring  their  ownership 
to  an  obliging  French  firm  before  bringing  his  Na- 
poleonic proposal  to  the  open  attention  of  Parlia- 
ment. Furthermore,  he  succeeded  in  securing  a 
cross-channel  visit  from  two  of  the  leading  friends 
of  the  Southern  cause  then  in  the  British  Parliament, 
Messrs.  Lindsay  and  Koebuck,  who  were  duly  enter- 
tained by  the  Emperor  at  the  Tuileries,  and  author- 
ized by  him,  so  they  afterwards  asserted,  to  repre- 
sent him  to  the  House  of  Commons  as  being  ripe  and 
eager  for  the  instant  recognition  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America. 

Unfortunately  for  Mr.  Roebuck,  who  sustained  a 
reputation  for  fluent  and  florid  speech,  he  had  on  a 
previous  public  occasion  described  the  French  Em- 
peror in  somewhat  ungentle  terms ;  in  fact,  had  de- 
nounced him  as  '*a  perjured  despot."  Therefore  a 
trap  was  set  for  Roebuck  when,  on  the  thirtieth  of 

1  Chief  authority :     Charles  Francis  Adams,  as  cited. 

286 


NAPOLEON,  EOEBUCK,  AND  BKIGHT     287 

June,  1863,  he  moved  in  the  House  of  Commons  '  *  to 
enter  into  negotiations  with  the  great  powers  of 
Europe  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  their  coopera- 
tion in  the  recognition ' '  of  the  Confederacy ;  and  then 
proceeded  to  make  himself  Napoleon's  mouthpiece 
by  quoting  the  Emperor's  language  as  follows: 

**As  soon  as  I  learnt  that  that  rumor  was  circu- 
lating in  England  (that  I  had  changed  my  mind 
about  recognizing  the  Confederacy),  I  gave  instruc- 
tions to  my  ambassador  to  deny  the  truth  of  it. 
Nay,  more,  I  instructed  him  to  say  that  my  feeUng 
was  not,  indeed,  exactly  the  same  as  it  was,  because 
it  was  stronger  than  ever  in  favor  of  recognizing  the 
South.  I  told  him  also  to  lay  before  the  British 
Government  my  understanding  and  my  wishes  on 
this  question,  and  to  ask  them  again  whether  they 
would  be  willing  to  join  me  in  that  recognition." 

The  Emperor,  according  to  Roebuck,  continued: 

''I  give  you  full  liberty  to  state  to  the  English 
House  of  Coromons  this  my  wish.  I  have  deter- 
mined in  all  things  to  act  with  England,  and,  more 
particularly,  I  have  determined  to  act  with  her  as  re- 
gards America." 

Slidell's  associates  were  able  to  report  to  the 
Confederacy  at  this  time  that  there  was  at  length  a 
people's  movement  in  England  in  favor  of  recogni- 
tion, as  well  as  a  ** people's  champion,"  Roebuck. 
One  of  them  had  also  *' taken  measures  to  placard 
every  available  space  in  the  streets  of  London  with 
representations  of  our  newly  adopted  flag  conjoined 
to  the  British  national  ensign — ^which  I  design 
simply  as  a  *  demonstration'  to  impress  the  masses 
with  the  vitality  of  our  cause." 

Roebuck  continued  his  speech  in  Parliament  as 
follows : 


288        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

*■  *  I  have  to-day  had  letters  from  Lancashire,  which 
say  that  in  thirteen  of  the  great  towns  there  have 
been  large  meetings  in  favor  of  the  recognition  of 
the  South — that  that  has  been  carried  by  an  im- 
mense majority  of  ten  to  one,  and  that  there  will  be 
no  end  to  the  petitions  sent  up  to  this  House  for  that 
measure.'* 

The  effect  of  this  speech  is  described  by  Mr.  Roe- 
buck's own  biographer  as  being  what  might  be  ex- 
pected as  the  inevitable  result  of  amateur  diplo- 
macy— leading  the  French  Emperor  to  disavow,  or 
to  decline  to  be  bound  by,  the  version  given  of  his 
conversation;  while  "the  amazement  and  amuse- 
ment, with  which  this  mission  to  the  *  perjured  des- 
pot' of  a  few  years  ago  was  received  by  the  general 
public,  were  expressed  in  very  pregnant  sarcasm  by 
speakers  like  Mr.  Bright,"  "who  shook  him  as  a 
terrier  shakes  a  rat,"  says  one  who  heard  the  de- 
bate.* 

The  American  minister  wrote  in  his  diary  next 
day: 

"Mr.  Roebuck  succeeded  in  spoiling  his  case  most 
completely  as  well  as  complicating  the  Emperor  at 
Paris  with  the  Ministry  here  and  the  Government 
at  home. ' ' 

Writing  to  Seward  he  said: 

"The  effect  of  Tuesday  night's  debate  was  very 
severe  on  Mr.  Roebuck.  His  extraordinary  at- 
tempts to  influence  the  action  of  the  House  by  the 
use  of  the  authority  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French, 
as  well  as  his  presuming  to  make  himself  the  medium 
of  an  appeal  to  Parliament  against  the  conduct  of 
the  ministry,  have  had  the  consequences  which  might 
naturally  be  expected  by  any  one  acquainted  with 

2  Trevelyan'B  Life  of  John  Bright,  as  cited,  p.  323. 


NAPOLEON,  KOEBUCK,  AND  BRIGHT     289 

the  English  character.  Thus  it  happened  that  Mr. 
Eoebuck,  though  addressing  an  assembly  a  great 
proportion  of  whom  sympathized  with  him  in  his  ob- 
ject, demolished  his  cause ;  whilst,  on  the  other  hand, 
Mr.  Bright,  even  whilst  running  counter  to  the  pre- 
disposition of  most  of  his  hearers,  succeeded  in  ex- 
torting a  general  tribute  of  admiration  of  his  elo- 
quent and  convincing  reply. ' ' 

On  July  13  (1863)  Roebuck  withdrew  his  motion, 
without  calling  for  a  division.  Within  a  few  days 
news  of  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  reached  England, 
starting  the  cotton  bonds  on  a  rapid  downward 
course,  and  greatly  encouraging  the  friends  of  the 
Union,  so  that  Bright  wrote  to  Sumner : 

"I  need  not  tell  you  with  what  feelings  of  grati- 
fication and  relief  I  have  received  the  news  of  your 
recent  successes.  The  debate  on  the  foolish  Roe- 
buck proposition  took  place  when  there  was  much 
gloom  over  your  prospects,  and  the  friends  of  Secesh 
here  were  rejoicing  in  the  belief  that  your  last  hour 
had  come.  How  soon  are  the  clouds  cleared  away; 
and  how  great  is  the  despondency  of  those  who  have 
dishonored  themselves  by  their  hatred  of  your  peo- 
ple and  Government.  The  loan  is  down  near  20  per 
cent,  in  a  little  more  than  a  week  and  is  now,  I  sus- 
pect, unsaleable,  and  people  are  rubbing  their  eyes, 
and  wondering  where  the  invincible  South  is  gone 
to.  Our  Pro-slavery  newspapers  are  desperately 
puzzled  and  the  whole  mass  of  opinion  is  in  con- 
fusion. ' '  ^ 

8  Cited  by  Rhodes,  iv,  376,  note. 


CHAPTER  62 

THE  FAILUEE   OF   THE   FAMINE 

Meanwhh,e,  the  two  rams  were  nearing  comple- 
tion, one  of  them  actually  taking  the  water  on  the 
fourth  of  July,  1863.  Minister  Adams  discreetly 
kept  in  his  pocket  communications  from  Secretary 
Seward  on  this  subject,  which,  if  conveyed  to  the 
British  Government  in  their  entirety,  would  have 
been  practically  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war. 
He  managed,  however,  to  acquaint  Earl  Russell  in- 
directly with  the  fact  that  his  instructions  were  far 
more  stringent  than  he  had  as  yet  been  disposed  to 
execute.  On  September  5  Earl  Russell  ordered  that 
the  vessels  be  prevented  from  leaving  Liverpool, 
the  very  day  on  which  Adams,  unaware  of  the  or- 
der, felt  it  needful  to  send  the  Earl  his  famous  des- 
patch containing  the  words;  *'It  would  be  super- 
fluous in  me  to  point  out  to  your  lordship  that  this 
is  war. "  * 

A  month  later  the  Broad  Arrow  was  placed  upon 
the  vessels ;  when  this  news  reached  the  great  audi- 
ence which  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  addressing  at 
Manchester,  *Hhe  whole  audience  rose  to  its  feet. 
Men  cheered  and  waved  their  hats,  while  women 
waved  their  handkerchiefs  and  wept."  The  British 
Admiralty  solved  the  problem  of  the  ironclads  by 
buying  them. 

Rhodes  says  that  had  they  reached  their  destina- 

1  Rhodes,  iv,  380. 

290 


THE  FAILURE  OF  THE  FAMINE      291 

tion  they  would  undoubtedly  have  broken  the  block- 
ade, and  **the  victories  even  of  Gettysburg  and 
Vicksburg  might  have  been  neutralized. — From 
some  such  damage  Earl  Eussell,  by  his  careful  and 
decisive  action,  saved  the  North,  and  thereby  pre- 
vented a  war  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain. "  ^  In  a  valuable  note  he  quotes  Captain 
Page,  who  had  been  selected  to  command  these  ves- 
sels, as  saying  in  1898:  ''My  intention  was  to  sail 
at  once  to  Wilmington  and  to  raise  the  blockade 
there  and  at  Charleston.  Having  accomplished  this, 
I  intended  to  raise  the  blockade  of  the  gulf  ports  and 
cut  off  all  communications  of  the  North  by  water 
with  New  Orleans.  I  had  at  the  time  perfect  confi- 
dence in  my  ability  to  accomplish  my  purposes,  and 
I  now  believe,  in  the  light  of  what  I  have  since 
learned,  that  if  the  rams  had  been  permitted  to  leave 
England  I  would  have  been  successful."^ 

In  September  Mr.  Mason,  after  conferring  with 
SlideU,  informed  Earl  Eussell  that  he  would  termi- 
nate his  mission,  and  did  so.  Slidell  cooperated 
with  Louis  Napoleon  in  constructing  two  iron-clads 
and  four  clipper  corvettes  in  France,  but  these  never 
reached  their  destination.  Napoleon,  as  Rhodes  says, 
having  decided  "to  change  his  tune."  After 
October,  1863,  the  danger  of  foreign  intervention  in 
the  Civil  War  never  recurred;  England  having 
proved  to  be  the  insurmountable  obstacle  to  the 
recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by  France  and  other 
European  powers.*  Jefferson  Davis,  in  his  Con- 
gressional message  in  December,  expressed  ''dis- 
satisfaction with  the  British  Government,"  alluding 
specifically  to  their  seizure  of  the  iron-clads  and 
their  respect  for  the  Federal  blockade. 

2  iv,  385.  a  The  same.  4  The  same,  388. 


292        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

In  his  ''Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment, ' '  ^  Mr.  Davis  explains  the  failure  of  the  Cot- 
ton Famine,  as  a  means  of  forcing  European  recog- 
nition, by  the  statement  that  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment interfered  with  its  efficacy,  through  fitting 
up  military  expeditions  for  the  forcible  seizure  of 
cotton  in  Southern  ports,  which  was  afterwards  doled 
out  to  England.  He  quotes  a  letter  from  Seward 
to  Minister  Adams,  dated  July  28,  1862,  promising 
that  the  Federals  would  * '  speedily  open  all  the  chan- 
nels of  commerce,  and  free  them  from  military  em- 
barrassments;  and  cotton,  so  much  desired  by  all 
nations,  will  flow  forth  as  freely  as  heretofore.  We 
have  ascertained  that  there  are  three  and  a  half 
millions  of  bales  yet  remaining  in  the  region  where 
it  was  produced,  though  large  quantities  of  it  are 
yet  unginned  and  otherwise  unprepared  for  market. 
We  have  instructed  the  military  authorities  to  favor, 
so  far  as  they  can  consistently  with  the  public  safety, 
its  preparation  for  and  despatch  to  the  markets 
where  it  is  so  much  wanted." 

Mr.  Davis  goes  on  to  say  that  in  pursuance  of  this 
policy  **  strong  military  and  naval  expeditions  were 
fitted  out  to  invade  us  and  occupy  the  ports  where 
cotton  and  other  valuable  products  were  usually 
shipped. — The  ports  of  Beaufort,  North  Carolina, 
Port  Royal,  South  Carolina,  and  New  Orleans,  Loui- 
siana, were  declared  by  proclamation  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  to  be  open  for  trade  under 
the  new  system.  Licenses  were  granted  to  foreign 
vessels  by  United  States  consuls  and  to  coasting 
vessels  by  the  Treasury  Department,  and  the  block- 
ade was  relaxed  so  far  as  related  to  those  ports,  ex- 
cept as  *to  persons,  property,  and  information  con- 

sAb  cited,  vol.  ii,  ch.  xzxvi. 


THE  FAILURE  OF  THE  FAMINE      293 

traband  of  war/  Collectors  were  appointed  at  the 
above-mentioned  ports,  and  a  circular  was  addressed 
to  the  foreign  ministers  at  Washington  announcing 
the  reopening  of  communication  with  conquered 
Southern  localities." 

But  the  report  of  the  Boston  Board  of  Trade  for 
1863  pays  Mr.  Davis's  government  the  tribute  of  a 
confession  that  it  had  largely  outwitted  these  plans 
of  the  Federals  for  accommodating  Europe  with  cot- 
ton. It  says:  **The  Confederates  have  guarded 
this  article  with  unusual  vigilance,  burning  and  de- 
stroying all  likely  to  fall  into  our  hands,  knowing 
that  the  'Cotton  Famine'  of  Europe  was  their  most 
active  agent  in  bringing  about  a  recognition  of  their 
confederacy."^  The  exportation  to  Great  Britain 
was  considerably  increased,  however,  rising  from 
72,000  bales  in  1862  to  132,000  in  the  following  year 
and  198,000  in  1864. 

On  both  sides  of  the  war  there  was  great  glee 
when,  by  burning,  this  commodity  could  be  kept 
from  conversion  into  an  asset  of  the  enemy's  war- 
chest.  Planters  of  the  precious  sea-island  fiber  did 
not  falter  in  applying  the  torch  to  the  entire  year's 
crop  when  Port  Koyal  was  taken  by  the  Federals, 
the  Charleston  Courier  commenting  as  follows: 
**At  eleven  o'clock  last  night  the  heavens  towards 
the  southwest  were  brilliantly  illuminated  with  the 
patriotic  flames  ascending  from  burning  cotton.  As 
the  spectators  witnessed  it  they  involuntarily  burst 
forth  with  cheer  after  cheer,  and  each  heart  was 
warmed  as  with  a  new  pulse. ' '  Again :  * '  We  learn 
with  gratification  that  the  patriotic  planters  on  the 
seaboard  are  hourly  applying  the  torch  to  their  cot- 
ton."   And  still  later:    ''The  'fires  of  patriotism' 

« Cited  in  Hammond's  Cotton  Industry,  p.  263. 


294        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEK 

continue ;  thirteen  cotton  houses  have  been  burnt  on 
Port  Royal  Island,  one  on  Paris,  and  one  on  St. 
Helena,  since  the  Yankee  occupation. '  *  "^ 

On  the  other  side,  Grant  in  his  Memoirs  gives  this 
graphic  account  of  an  incident  connected  with  his 
occupation  of  Jackson:  ** Sherman  and  I  went  to- 
gether into  a  manufactory  which  had  not  ceased 
work  on  account  of  the  battle  nor  for  the  entrance  of 
Yankee  troops.  Our  presence  did  not  seem  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  either  the  manager  or  the 
operatives,  most  of  whom  were  girls.  We  looked  on 
for  a  while  to  see  the  tent  cloth  which  they  were 
making  roll  out  of  the  looms,  with  *C.  S.  A.'  woven 
in  each  bolt.  There  was  an  immense  amount  of  cot- 
ton in  bales,  stacked  outside.  Finally  I  told  Sher- 
man I  thought  they  had  done  work  enough.  The 
operatives  were  told  they  could  leave  and  take  with 
them  what  cloth  they  could  carry.  In  a  few  minutes 
cotton  and  factory  were  in  a  blaze. '  *  ® 

t  Cited  by  Rhodes,  iii,  551,  552,  note. 

8U.  S.  Grant,  Personal  Memoirs:  New  York,  1885,  1886;  vol.  i, 
p.  507. 


CHAPTER  63 

ECONOMICS   AND   FATALISM 

To  an  unprejudiced  observer  it  seems  clear  that 
the  South  failed  to  make  the  best  use  of  its  cotton 
resources  as  a  basis  of  revenue  and  finance.  Too 
much  reliance  was  placed  on  the  efficacy  of  the  Cot- 
ton Famine  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  and  not 
enough  attention  was  paid  to  economic  efficiency  at 
home.  As  Dr.  Curry  says  in  his  Civil  History  of 
the  Confederate  States/  how  to  deal  with  cotton  and 
make  it  most  available  as  an  auxiliary  to  the  South- 
ern cause  did  not  secure  a  concurrence  of  judgment 
or  consistent  and  effective  action.  To  the  present 
writer  it  seems  that  the  best  plan  suggested  was  the 
one  urged  on  the  Confederacy  by  Senator  Ham- 
mond of  South  Carolina,  to  prohibit  the  private  ex- 
port of  cotton,  purchase  it  with  bonds  of  the  new 
government,  and  hold  it  abroad  and  at  home  as  a 
basis  of  credit.  As  the  sequel  showed,  it  might 
have  added  a  value  amounting  to  two  billion  dollars 
in  gold  to  the  resources  of  the  Confederacy.^  But 
the  incantatory  phrase  to  which  Senator  Hammond 
himself  had  given  such  wide  currency  wrought  its 
benumbing  witchery  even  on  the  minds  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Southern  government,  so  that  they  depended 
on  the  magic  scepter  of  "King  Cotton"  alone  to 

1  Cited  in  Library  of  Southern  Literature,  iii,  1135. 

2  See  Sketch  of  James  Henry  Hammond,  by  Major  Harry  Ham- 
mond: n.  d. 

295 


296        COTTON  AS  A  WOKLD  POWER 

take  care  of  his  realm,  and  even  to  turn  the  blockade 
of  the  enemy  into  a  panoply  of  defense  and  deliver- 
ance. 

Considerations  of  this  character  are  pertinent  at 
the  close  of  this  section,  as  an  offset  to  the  almost 
fatalistic  impression  that  the  student  sometimes  re- 
ceives while  tracing  the  skeins  of  the  cotton  influ- 
ence through  the  woof  of  American  history.  A  con- 
temporary French  writer  has  said,  concerning  war, 
that  "economic  phenomena  are  the  substructure  of 
history.  This  means  that  history  advances  through 
the  antagonism  of  peoples  moved  by  the  nature  of 
their  conflicting  needs,  and  thus  economic  fatalities 
sometimes  dominate  the  will  of  man  as  the  blind 
divinities  of  antiquity  were  said  to  do. ' '  ^ 

Y'  There  is  much  to  lend  color  to  this  view  in  the 
study  of  the  influence  of  cotton  in  American  his- 
tory. At  times  it  seems  to  weave  its  way  relent- 
lessly almost  as  though  the  soul  of  Arachne  had 
actually  found  lodgment  in  its  boll.  But  the  truth 
is,  of  course,  that  the  wills  of  men  yielded  supinely 
to  the  sway  of  this  portentous  economic  force,  instead 
of  setting  themselves  resolutely  to  dominate  it  and 
control  it  for  wisdom  and  righteousness.  There  are 
scores  of  turning-^points  in  its  history  where,  if  wis- 
dom had  taken  the  skeins  from  the  hands  of  preju- 
dice and  passion,  a  righteous  and  peaceful  pattern 

^  might  have  been  the  result.  A  sad  illustration  of 
the  opposite  course  is  found  in  the  substitution  of 
the  madness  of  Douglas  politics  for  the  calm  sanity 
of  the  policies  of  Webster.  The  writer  rejects  the 
implied  philosophy  of  Maurice  Lair,  just  quoted,  and 

3  Maurice  Lair  in  Revue  Bleue;  cited  by  Literary  Digest:  New 
York,  Aug.  8,  1914.  For  further  discussion  of  Fatalism  and  Eco- 
nomics, see  Seligman,  as  cited.  Part  II,  ch.  i 


ECONOMICS  AND  FATALISM  297 

will  let  another  economist  answer  him,  most  admir- 
ably : 

**To  this  philosophy  the  civilist  opposes  another: 
that  in  man  there  is  that  which  sets  him  apart  from 
the  plants  and  the  animals,  which  gives  him  control 
of  and  responsibility  for  his  social  acts;  which 
makes  him  the  master  of  his  social  destiny  if  he  but 
will  it;  that  by  virtue  of  the  forces  of  his  mind  he 
may  go  forward  to  the  completer  conquest,  not 
merely  of  nature,  but  of  himself,  and  thereby,  and 
by  that  alone,  redeem  human  association  from  the 
evils  that  now  burden  it. "  "* 

4 Norman  Angell:  The  Foundations  of  International  Polity: 
London,  1914;  p.  xlviii. 


BOOK  VI 
THE  OLD  SOUTH  AND  THE  NEW 


CHAPTER  64 

COTTON   AND  THE   OLD  SOUTH 

A  LETTER  from  Eli  Whitney  to  his  friend  Robert 
Fulton  contained  the  following  passage : 

**My  invention  was  new  and  distinct  from  every 
other;  it  stood  alone.  It  was  not  interwoven  with 
anything  before  known; — and  I  have  always  be- 
lieved, that  I  should  have  had  no  difficulty  in  caus- 
ing my  rights  to  be  respected,  if  it  had  been  less 
valuable,  and  been  used  only  by  a  small  portion  of 
the  community. ' '  ^ 

The  eagerness  of  Southern  planters  to  grow 
upland  cotton,  after  it  could  be  ginned,  almost 
passes  belief.  Five  months  after  he  had  obtained 
his  patent  Whitney  wrote:  **We  shall  not  be  able 
to  get  machines  made  as  fast  as  we  shall  want  them. 
We  have  now  Eight  Hundred  Thousand  weight  of 
cotton  on  hand  and  the  next  crop  will  begin  to  come 
in  very  soon.  It  will  require  Machines  enough  to 
clean  5  or  6  thousand  wt.  of  clean  cotton  pr  Day  to 
satisfy  the  demand  for  next  Year. — And  I  expect 
the  crop  will  be  double  another  year. ' '  ^  Ten  years 
after  the  gin  was  invented  he  wrote:  ''The  cotton 
cleaned  annually  with  that  machine  sells  for  at  least 
five  Million  of  Dollars. ' '  ^ 

This   astonishing  leap   in  cotton  production   of 

1  Howe's  Memoirs,  as  cited,  pp.  130-131. 

2  Whitney's  Correspondence,  as  cited,  p.  101. 
8  The  same,  p.  122. 

301 


302        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

course  arose  from  the  fact  that  Whitney's  gin  made 
it  possible  exactly  at  the  moment  when  the  great 
series  of  English  inventions,  rounding  to  comple- 
tion in  the  power-loom  of  Cartwright,  had  created 
an  insatiable  demand.  As  Baines  said,  "The  spin- 
ning machinery  in  England  gave  birth  to  the  cotton 
cultivation  in  America;  and  the  increase  of  the  lat- 
ter is  now  in  turn  extending  the  application  of  the 
former.  In  the  vast  machine  of  commerce,  the 
spindles  of  Manchester  are  as  necessarily  tied  to  the 
plow  and  hoe  of  the  Mississippi,  as  to  their  own 
bobbins. — Thus  do  mechanical  improvements  in 
England,  and  agricultural  improvements  in  America, 
act  and  re-act  upon  each  other:  thus  do  distant  na- 
tions become  mutually  dependent,  and  contribute  to 
each  other's  wealth."^ 

Cooperating  with  this  commercial  coincidence  oc- 
curred a  large  increase  in  Yankee  ship-building. 
Massachusetts  and  Maine,  for  example,  by  exceed- 
ing, just  prior  to  Whitney's  invention,  the  heaviest 
tonnage  of  colonial  times,  enabled  Tench  Coxe  to 
discredit  effectually  Lord  Sheffield's  confident 
prophecy  that  American  shipping  would  come  to  an 
end  after  the  colonies  left  the  crown.  By  the  year 
of  Whitney's  death,  1825,  the  domestic  exports  of 
the  United  States  showed  a  value  of  over  $66,000,000 ; 
and  of  this  amount  more  than  $36,000,000  arose  from 
raw  cotton  shipped  by  the  South  to  England. 

Robert  Fulton,  a  friend  of  both  Whitney  and 
Cartwright,  by  applying  the  steam-engine  of  Watt 
to  override  the  immense  ocean  barrier  dividing  the 
gin  from  the  home  of  the  power-loom,  manifolded  a 
thousand  times  over  the  carrying  power  of  the  ships ; 
while  Samuel  Slater,  the  British  spinner,  by  setting 

4  Baines,  317. 


COTTON  AND  THE  OLD  SOUTH   303 

up  from  memory  at  Pawtucket  a  successful  factory- 
just  three  years  before  Whitney  invented  his  gin, 
initiated  in  New  England  a  demand  for  Southern 
cotton  second  only  to  that  of  the  old  England  from 
which  he  had  fled.  It  is  little  wonder  that  the 
South  devoted  itself  thenceforward  with  undivided 
attention  to  the  production  of  that  precious  com- 
modity for  which  two  continents  clamored,  and  which 
the  South  alone  could  supply. 

Certainly  the  life  of  the  South  from  this  time 
forward  revolved  around  the  cotton  plant.  Early 
in  the  spring  the  negroes  with  their  multitudinous 
mules  begin  the  plowing  of  straight,  long,  deep  fur- 
rows in  the  fragrant  mellow  soil, — the  deeper  the 
better,  since  cotton  has  a  tap-root  which,  if  properly 
invited,  will  sink  four  feet  in  searching  for  fresh 
food  and  moisture.  Fertilizer,  consisting  of  manure 
and  malodorous  guano,  or,  in  later  times,  expensive 
phosphates,  is  laid  in  the  center  of  the  ''beds'* 
thrown  up  by  the  furrows;  and  the  time  of  actual 
planting  awaited.  When  the  first  song  of  the 
** turtle  dove"  is  heard,  and  the  starry  blooms  of  the 
dogwood  light  up  the  edge  of  the  forest,  and  the 
frosts  are  thought  to  be  over,  came,  in  the  old  days, 
flocks  of  black  women  with  hoes,  scooping  out  the 
beds  at  rough  intervals,  followed  by  other  women 
dropping  careless  handfuls  of  seed.  The  tender 
green  plants,  thrusting  their  way  upward  shortly, 
were  thinned  out,  one  stalk  to  a  foot.  When  two  or 
three  weeks  above  the  surface,  more  plowing  was 
needful,  to  break  the  new  crust  of  the  soil,  and  kill 
weeds.  Then,  every  three  weeks  thereafter,  until  the 
steaming  *'dog  days'*  of  August,  the  patient  plow 
would  break  the  crust  again  and  again,  so  that  on 
the  larger  plantations  the  plows  never  ceased,  but  re- 


304        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

turned  continually  from  the  last  furrows  of  far- 
stretching  acres  to  break  the  first  furrows  of  an- 
other three  weeks'  task.  Hoeing,  meanwhile,  kept 
the  women  busy  with  the  grass  and  weeds.  In  early 
August  the  crop  was  ''laid  by,"  and  required  no 
more  work  till  picking  time. 

Meanwhile,  under  proper  conditions  this  inces- 
sant labor  would  transform  the  fields  into  flower 
gardens.^  By  June  the  beautiful  blossoms  are 
blushing;  bell-shaped  and  softly  brilliant,  here  and 
there,  with  the  magic  trick  of  changing  their  colors, 
as  a  maid  her  clothes.  Shimmering  in  the  morning 
in  a  creamy  white  or  pale  straw  dress,  and  closing 
its  silky  petals  in  the  evening,  the  flower  on  the  sec- 
ond day  of  its  fragile  life  shifts  to  a  wild-rose  color, 
deepening  by  evening  to  magenta  or  carnation:  all 
this,  for  three  brief  but  brilliant  days,  on  graceful 
stems  knee-high,  rich  in  glossy  dark  green  foliage; 
so  that  the  aspect  of  a  spacious  level  field,  with  fresh 
blossoms  budding  into  cream  or  cloth  of  gold,  while 
elder  sisters  smile  in  pink  and  red  amidst  the 
trembling  verdure,  is  of  a  splendid  variegated 
beauty  that  lends  to  the  Southern  landscape  half  its 
charm.  It  is  in  this  summer  season  that  the  South- 
ern children  sing : 

First  day  white,  next  day  red, 
Third  day  from  my  birth  I'm  dead; 
Though  I  am  of  short  duration, 
Yet  withal  I  clothe  the  nation. 

From  mid- August  until  winter,  however,  and  espe- 
cially in  that  "season  of  mellow  f ruitfulness, " 
October,  the  cotton  shrub  becomes  a  thing  of  won- 

» Belonging  to  the  family  Malvacew,  cotton  is  kin  to  the  holly- 
hock, to  which  its  blossoms  show  a  refined  resemblance. 


COTTON  AND  THE  OLD  SOUTH   305 

der;  adding  to  its  garniture  of  bloom  the  bursting 
pods  of  snowy  fleece  that  dominate  the  coloring  of 
the  fields  into  the  semblance  of  a  vegetable  snow- 
storm. Then,  on  the  old  plantation,  swarmed  forth 
the  turbaned  mammies  and  the  wenches,  shining 
pickaninnies  and  black  babes  in  arms,  with  bags  and 
huge  baskets  and  mirth,  and  nimble  fingers  as  it 
were  predestined  to  the  cotton  pod,  to  live  in  the 
sunshine  amid  the  fleecy  snow,  and  pile  up  white 
fluffy  mounds  at  the  furrow  ends,  chanting  melo- 
dious minor  chords  of  song  as  old  as  Africa,  the 
women  trooping  home  again  at  night-fall  with  poised 
overflowing  baskets  on  their  heads,  to  feasts  of  corn- 
pone  and  cracklin'  and  molasses  in  the  blaze  of  a 
light 'ood  fire,  within  sound  of  the  thrumming  of  the 
banjo. 

Cotton  was  and  is  the  Southern  ** money  crop." 
From  autumn  to  autumn  the  banker  and  merchant 
** carry"  the  South  on  their  ledgers,  and  scant  is  the 
interchange  of  coin;  but  when  the  "first  bale  of 
cotton"  rolls  into  town  behind  a  jangling  team  of 
trotting  mules,  their  grinning  driver  cracking  out 
resounding  triumph  with  his  whip,  money  makes  its 
anniversary  appearance,  accounts  are  settled,  and 
the  whole  shining  South  ** feels  flush."  The  gin 
houses  drive  a  roaring  business,  the  air  is  heavy  in 
them  and  the  light  is  thick  with  downy  lint,  and 
their  atmosphere  pungent  with  the  oily  odor  of 
crushed  woolly  seeds.  Steam  or  hydraulic  presses, 
with  irresistible  power,  then  pack  towering  heaps 
of  seedless  fleece  into  coarse  casings  of  flimsy  jute 
wrapping,  metal-bound.  These  bales,  weighing 
roughly  to  the  tale  of  five  hundred  pounds,  pass  the 
appraisement  of  the  broker,  swarm  the  platforms  of 
the  railway  warehouses  and  overflow  to  the  hospi- 


'] 


306        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

table  ground ;  then  are  laden  laboriously  into  freight 
cars,  and,  after  being  squeezed  to  the  irreducible 
minimum  of  size  by  some  giant  compress,  are  hauled 
to  the  corners  of  the  earth. 

Of  the  distinctive  civilization  of  the  old  Southern 
cotton  life  no  words  could  be  more  pertinent  than 
Grady's.* 

* '  That  was  a  peculiar  society, ' '  he  said.  *  *  Almost 
feudal  in  its  splendor,  it  was  almost  patriarchal  in 
its  simplicity.  Leisure  and  wealth  gave  it  exquisite 
culture.  Its  wives  and  mothers,  exempt  from 
drudgery  and  almost  from  care,  gave  to  their  sons, 
through  patient  and  constant  training,  something  of 
their  own  grace  and  gentleness  and  to  their  homes 
beauty  and  light.  Its  people,  homogeneous  by 
necessity,  held  straight  and  simple  faith,  and  were 
religious  to  a  marked  degree  along  the  old  lines  of 
Christian  belief.  This  same  homogeneity  bred  a 
hospitality  that  was  as  kinsmen  to  kinsmen,  and  that 
wasted  at  the  threshold  of  every  home  what  the 
more  frugal  people  of  the  North  conserved  and  in- 
vested in  public  charities. — Money  counted  least  in 
making  the  social  status,  and  constantly  ambitious 
and  brilliant  youngsters  from  no  estate  married  into 
the  families  of  planter  princes.  Meanwhile  the  one 
character  utterly  condemned  and  ostracized  was  the 
man  who  was  mean  to  his  slaves.  Even  the  coward 
was  pitied  and  might  have  been  liked.  For  the  cruel 
master  there  was  no  toleration. 

— **In  its  engaging  grace — in  the  chivalry  that 
tempered  even  Quixotism  with  dignity — in  the  piety 
that  saved  master  and  slave  alike — in  the  charity 
that  boasted  not — in  the  honor  held  above  estate — 

•  "The  New  South,"  in  the  New  York  Ledger,  1889. 


COTTON  AND  THE  OLD  SOUTH   307 

in  the  hospitality  that  neither  condescended  nor 
cringed — in  frankness  and  heartiness  and  whole- 
some comradeship — in  the  reverence  paid  to  woman- 
hood and  the  inviolable  respect  in  which  woman's 
name  was  held — the  civilization  of  the  old  slave 
regime  in  the  South  has  not  been  surpassed,  and  per- 
haps will  not  be  equaled,  among  men." 

During  the  season  between  the  two  cotton  crops, 
** Southern  hospitality"  touches  its  climax.  "With 
leisure  and  money  at  command,  the  *'big  house"  of 
the  old  plantation  threw  wide  its  welcoming  doors 
to  troops  of  guests,  the  men  folk  rode  to  hounds 
across  the  fields,  or  stalked  the  deer  amid  the 
swamps,  or  hunted  the  wild  duck  and  turkey  and 
whistling  coveys  of  quail  (called  **pa'tridges"), 
while  the  women  spread  the  damask  in  the  evening, 
and  laid  out  the  family  silver  to  grace  a  savory  feast 
that  has  no  counterpart  in  all  the  world:  fried 
chicken  and  corn  pone  and  yams,  'possum,  and  the 
esoteric  dainties  of  the  freshly  slaughtered  pig, 
heaps  of  snowy,  steaming,  home-grown  rice,  slices 
of  delicate  peanut-fed  ham,  teased  with  the  con- 
trasting exquisite  flavors  of  quince  and  crab-apple 
jellies,  watermelon  *' preserves,"  *' cookies"  and 
tarts  and  spiced  brandy  peaches ! 

Nor  was  the  slave  debarred  from  the  pleasures  of 
this  halcyon  season.  The  writer  knows  not  how 
better  to  cap  this  attempt  to  impart  some  faint 
aroma  of  the  social  fragrance  of  the  old-time  South 
than  by  citing  this  versified  description  of  the  pas- 
times of  the  slave,  written  long  before  the  war  by  a 
Carolina  scholar  and  statesman,  William  John  Gray- 
son. Against  the  somber  background  of  slave  life, 
dark  enough,  in  truth,  as  it  was,  but  in  the  books  de- 


308        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

picted  with  monotonous  sameness  to  the  exclusion  of 
every  penciling  of  light,  it  is  well  to  set  this  color- 
ful medallion,  truthful  and  charming: 

When  autumn's  parting  days  grow  cold  and  brief, 

Light  hoar  frosts  sparkle  on  the  fallen  leaf, 

The  breezeless  pines,  at  rest,  no  longer  sigh, 

And  pearl-like  clouds  stand  shining  in  the  sky; 

When  to  the  homestead  flocks  and  herds  incline, 

Sonorous  conchs  recall  the  rambhng  swine, 

And  from  the  field,  the  low  descending  sun 

Sends  home  the  Slave,  his  fleecy  harvest  done. 

In  field  and  wood  he  hunts  the  frequent  hare; 

The  wild  hog  chases  to  the  forest  lair; 

Entraps  the  gobbler;  with  persuasive  smoke 

Beguiles  the  'possum  from  the  hollow  oak; 

On  the  tall  pine  tree's  topmost  bough  espies 

The  crafty  coon — a  more  important  prize — 

Detects  the  dodger's  peering  eyes  that  glow 

With  fire  reflected  from  the  blaze  below. 

Hews  down  the  branchless  trunk  with  practised  hand. 

And  drives  the  climber  from  his  nodding  stand ; 

Downward,  at  last,  he  springs  with  crashing  sound, 

Where  Jet  and  Pincher  seize  him  on  the  ground, 

Yields  to  the  hunter  the  contested  spoil, 

And  pays,  with  feast  and  fur,  the  evening  toil. 

When  calm  skies  glitter  with  the  starry  light. 

The  boatman  tries  the  fortune  of  the  night, 

Launches  the  light  canoe;  the  torch's  beam 

Gleams  like  a  gliding  meteor  on  the  stream; 

Along  the  shore  the  flick 'ring  firelight  steals. 

Shines  through  the  wave,  and  all  its  wealth  reveals. 

The  spotted  trout  its  mottled  side  displays. 

Swift  shoals  of  mullet  flash  beneath  the  blaze; 

He  marks  their  rippling  course;  through  cold  and  wet. 

Lashes  the  sparkling  tide  with  dext'rous  net; 


COTTON  AND  THE  OLD  SOUTH   309 

"With  poised  harpoon  the  bass  or  drum  assails, 

And  strikes  the  barb  through  silv'ry  tinted  scales. — 

Not  toil  alone,  the  fortune  of  the  slave ! 

He  shares  the  sport  and  spoils  of  wood  and  wave.'' 

'Library  of  Southern  Literature,  v,  2022-2023;  slightly 
transposed. 

Note.— Readers  interested  in  technical  information  should  know 
that  the  baling  process  mentioned  on  pages  305-306  produces  at  the 
gins  a  bale  28  x  56  x  42  inches  in  size,  weighing  approximately  500 
lbs.,  including  20  lbs.  bagging  and  steel  straps,  thus  having  a 
density  of  about  14  lbs.  per  cubic  foot.  "In  this  condition  the 
cotton  is  bought  by  cotton  buyers  for  export  or  for  delivery  to 
American  mills,  the  seller  delivering  the  same  to  a  railroad  or  com- 
press point,  where  the  cotton  is  sorted  according  to  grade  (see  note 
on  p.  374),  compressed  and  marked,  the  size  being  reduced  to 
28  X  56  X  18  inches,  giving  a  density  of  from  28  to  30  lbs.  per  cubic 
foot."  Two  excellent  articles  on  the  marketing  and  financing  of 
cotton  may  be  found  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science  for  Sept.,  1911,  by  A.  K.  Marsh  and 
J.  J.  Arnold,  experts  in  these  branches  of  the  business. 


CHAPTER  65 

THE  NEW   south:      COTTON  AND  POLITICS 

Ben  Hell  of  Georgia  quite  aptly  and  accurately 
expressed  the  political  attitude  of  the  average  in- 
telligent man  of  the  new  South  when  he  exclaimed: 

''There  was  a  South  of  slavery  and  secession — 
that  South  is  dead.  There  is  a  South  of  union  and 
freedom — that  South,  thank  God,  is  living,  breath- 
,ing,  growing  every  hour." 

From  the  roots  of  the  cotton  plant  grew  the  Upas 
tree  of  slavery.  It  took  the  pruning  hook  of  war  to 
cut  it  down,  and  this  war  paralyzed  the  roots  of  the 
cotton  industry  itself,  so  that  at  the  end  of  the 
struggle  only  one  bale  of  cotton  was  being  raised 
where  fifteen  were  grown  at  its  beginning,  while 
other  cotton  growing  countries  had  meanwhile 
energetically  endeavored  to  destroy  the  American 
monopoly  of  European  markets;  yet  so  great  was 
the  prolific  power  of  this  plant  in  its  occidental  set- 
ting that  it  took  the  Southern  planter,  without  slave 
labor,  only  thirteen  years  to  win  back  his  suprem- 
acy.^   In  spite  of  the  defiant  valedictory  of  Senator 

1  Bulletin  No.  33,  as  cited,  p.  14. — ^"What  had  been  the  weakness 
of  the  South — its  dependence  on  a  single  crop — ^now  proved  its  chief 
strength  in  the  moment  of  need.  Stricken  to  a  point  of  desperate 
poverty  by  the  war,  its  salvation  lay  in  the  fact  that  at  once  an 
eager  market  was  clamoring  for  its  cotton.  In  the  twelve  months 
following  the  close  of  the  war  the  exports  of  cotton,  though  less 
than  half  the  quantity  of  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  war, 
reached  the  unprecedented  money  value  of  over  $200,000,000.  High 
prices  continued  for  seven  or  eight  years,  and  counterbalanced  the 
lower  production,   which  did  not  reach  the  ante-bellum  level  till 

310 


NEW  SOUTH:  COTTON  AND  POLITICS     311 

Hammond,  the  North  had  dared  to  make  war  on  cot- 
ton, and  cotton  for  a  while  was  conquered.  But  only 
for  a  while.  That  little  persistent  white  rose  of  the 
South  smiled  up  in  the  face  of  the  soldier  gardener 
throughout  the  dark  days  of  Reconstruction,  darker 
than  those  of  the  war,  and  even  lured  back  the  liber- 
ated slave  to  do  it  homage.  The  soldier  farmer, 
his  wits  sharpened  on  the  whetstone  of  war,  fed  new 
nourishment  to  his  white  rose  garden,  his  former 
slave  assisting  in  the  labor,  and  the  garden  spread 
in  gracious  acreage,  with  the  result  that  whereas  in 
1830  the  American  crop  for  the  first  time  reached  a 
production  of  a  million  bales,  and  never  once  during 
slavery  attained  a  higher  production  than  five  and 
a  half  million  bales,  yet  within  twenty  years  after 
the  beginning  of  the  war  that  highest  point  had  been 
exceeded  by  two  million,  and  the  crop  for  1914  nearly 
trebled  it. 

As  President  Alderman  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia has  said,  ''Slave  labor  is  now  gone  and  the 
legitimate  sovereignty  of  cotton  is  an  assured  fact. 
Three-fourths  of  this  great  crop,  which  must  be  re- 
lied on  to  clothe  civilization,  and  in  the  exploitation 
of  which,  two  billions  of  capital  are  used,  is  raised 
in  the  South.  It  is  a  stupendous  God-made  mo- 
nopoly. '  *  2 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  1908.  If  the  present 
writer  may  be  permitted  to  change  the  figures  to 
correspond  with  the  facts  of  1916,  President  Alder- 
man would  continue  as  follows : 

1871.  The  South  had  money  to  buy  the  goods  it  so  sorely  needed, 
and  the  North  had  a  ready  market  for  its  surplus." — H.  C.  Emery 
on  "Economic  Development  of  the  U.  S.,"  in  Cambridge  Modern 
History,  as  cited,  vii,  p.  697. 

2  "The  Growing  South,"  in  Library  of  Southern  Literature,  xiv, 
6213. 


312        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

To-day,  the  South  has  invested,  in  777  mills,  with 
their  9,200,000  spindles,  $225,000,000,  as  against 
$21,000,000  twenty-five  years  ago.  The  fields  of  the 
South  furnish  the  raw  material  for  three-fourths  of 
the  mills  of  all  the  world  with  their  110,000,000 
spindles.  The  South  now  consumes  2,300,000  bales, 
which  is  about  the  amount  consumed  b}^  the  rest  of 
the  country  and  is  a  four-fold  increase  over  its  con- 
sumption in  1890.  If  the  time  should  ever  come 
when  we  can  spin  and  weave  all  of  our  present  crop, 
we  would  need  7,770  mills  to  do  it,  and  the  world  at 
large  would  need  an  annual  crop  of  thirty  million 
bales.  This  three-fold  increase  of  the  crop  can  be 
brought  about  by  increasing,  by  means  of  improved 
agriculture,  the  productivity  of  the  land,  and  by  rec- 
lamation of  land  along  the  Mississippi  Valley.  If 
this  increase  could  be  accomplished;  if  the  labor 
could  be  found  to  handle  it;  if  the  markets  for  it 
could  be  secured  in  such  volume  that  the  price  could 
remain  near  to  its  present  standard;  and,  if  our 
capacity  to  spin  and  weave  our  share  of  the  increase 
could  be  maintained,  the  Southern  States  of  America 
would  become  the  richest  portion  of  the  earth.  The 
present  value  of  the  cotton  crop,  raw  material 
and  manufactured  product,  is  about  $1,250,000,000. 
Trebled  in  value,  it  would  amount  to  three  or  four 
billions  annually.  It  is  easy  to  lose  one's  judg- 
ment in  this  mounting  mass  of  values,  but  one  thing 
seems  very  clear:  The  opportunity  to  develop  the 
potentialities  of  cotton,  in  field  and  in  mill,  to  train 
and  handle  the  labor  involved  in  the  development, 
which  would  cover  the  whole  field  of  the  poor  white, 
the  immigrant  and  the  negro,  to  evolve  the  financial 
genius  to  move  and  market  this  world  staple,  makes 
of  the  Southern  States  a  field  for  industrial  talent 


NEW  SOUTH:  COTTON  AND  POLITICS     313 

and  industrial  leadership  unsurpassed  in  the 
world. 

President  Alderman  points  out  the  enormous 
development  in  Southern  cotton  manufacture,  to 
which  attention  will  be  called  in  the  closing  section, 
on  "Cotton  and  World  Trade."  For  the  present 
it  is  pertinent  to  indicate  briefly  the  effect  produced 
by  this  development  on  political  and  social  condi- 
tions. 

Just  as  in  the  early  days  of  Southern  manu- 
facture, when  Calhoun  was  proponent  of  protection, 
so  now,  those  sections  of  the  South  where  manufac- 
ture is  regaining  its  importance  are  veering  toward 
protection.  Among  the  many  epigrams  of  Ameri- 
can politics,  it  would  be  difficult  to  surpass  in  terse 
homely  truthfulness  the  saying  of  General  Hancock, 
**The  tariff  is  a  local  issue."  Just  as  Daniel  Web- 
ster swung  away  from  free  trade  when  the  inter- 
ests of  New  England  demanded  a  tariff,  so  now, 
Louisiana  with  its  sugar  industry,  Alabama  with  its 
steel  mills,  and  the  cotton  factory  towns  through- 
out the  entire  South  testify  to  those  ''emergent  and 
exigent  interests"  which  Webster  attributed  to  the 
South  and  fully  justified  (see  page  215). 

The  same  principle  appears  in  the  attitude  of  the 
Southern  States  to  the  Shipping  Bill  so  strongly 
advocated  by  President  Wilson,  himself  a  South- 
erner and  a  former  exponent  of  States-rights.  Such 
a  measure  involves,  of  course,  concentration  of  ad- 
ditional power  in  the  hands  of  the  central  govern- 
ment ;  but  the  South,  its  cotton  trade  badly  crippled 
by  the  Great  War,  felt  driven  by  the  force  of  con- 
temporary circumstances  to  support  in  1914  a  policy 
in  behalf  of  that  same  cotton  industry  which  had  led 
it  in  previous  epochs  to  attack  the  ''insidious  en- 


314        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

croachments"  of  Washington  on  the  "sacred  domain 
of  States-rights." 

Perhaps  the  most  extreme  illustration  of  the  in- 
fluence of  economics  on  politics  that  has  thus  far 
been  afforded  in  America  by  the  Great  War  is  the 
effort  made  by  the  South  in  1914  to  secure  govern- 
mental ** valorization"  of  cotton  in  a  manner  strik- 
ingly analogous  to  the  Brazilian  method  for  govern- 
mental control  of  the  coffee  crop,  which,  only  three 
years  previously,  was  denounced  as  extortionate 
monopoly.  As  Professor  Alvin  Johnson  of  Cornell 
has  said,^  the  Brazilian  method  of  control  of  the  cof- 
fee market  consists,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  ware- 
housing of  the  existing  supply,  and  the  limitation  of 
shipments  from  the  government  warehouses  to  such 
amounts  as  will  not  depress  prices  unduly.  In  the 
second  place,  shipments  on  private  account  are 
checked  by  a  heavy  export  duty.  By  its  control  of 
conditions  under  which  coffee  is  accepted  at  the 
warehouses,  the  State  is  able  to  keep  production 
within  bounds. — Four-fifths  of  the  coffee  of  the 
world  comes  from  Brazil ;  not  far  from  three-fourths 
of  the  cotton  comes  from  the  United  States. — The 
huge  coffee  crop  of  1906-1907  (twenty  million  bags, 
as  compared  with  an  average  crop  of  twelve  mil- 
lions) forced  upon  the  attention  of  the  Brazilian 
mercantile  community  and  the  state  government,  the 
inadequacy  of  a  laissez-faire  policy  in  the  matter  of 
this  chief  staple.  The  present  European  war,  with 
its  attendant  disorganization  of  markets  consuming 
one-third  of  the  world's  cotton  supply,  is  producing 
a  similar  effect  upon  American  opinion.  This  opin- 
ion centralizes  in  the  South. 

The  growth  of  mill  towns  in  the  South,  involv- 
ing as  they  do  the  transition  of  population  from  iso- 

>  In  the  New  Republic,  Nov.  7,  1914. 


NEW  SOUTH:  COTTON  AND  POLITICS     315 

lated  rural  life  to  the  solidarity  of  urban  communi- 
ties, has  perceptibly  affected  politics.  Trusting  in 
the  leadership  of  cotton  mill  managers,  and  at  other 
times  maneuvered  by  astute  and  unscrupulous  poli- 
ticians to  their  own  hurt,  the  mill  operatives  are  be- 
ginning to  furnish  solid  masses  of  votes  in  a  man- 
ner that  makes  them  a  power.  Suddenly  torn  away 
as  they  now  are  from  custom,  uprooted  from  the 
traditional  and  unthinking  vote-casting  of  partizan- 
ship  "back  home"  in  the  rural  districts,  and  trans- 
planted into  a  new  economic  environment  favorable 
to  the  explosive  force  of  new  ideas  as  well  as  to  the 
ferment  of  political  discussion,  these  mill  folk  intro- 
duce into  the  ''solid  South"  the  thin  edge  of  a  wedge 
that  may  rift  it.  Already  there  are  cases  of  a  solid 
mill  population  voting  the  Republican  ticket,  and  of 
mill  managers  that  are  quoted  as  saying  that  their 
operatives  are  ''all  Republican  without  knowing 
it."  Unquestionably  an  important  impetus  in  the 
wave  of  laws  for  liquor  restraint  that  has  recently 
swept  over  the  South  was  supplied  by  far-sighted 
mill  management,  anxious  to  enlist  temperance  in 
the  interest  of  efficiency,  and  inducing  operatives  to 
vote  for  it.  Unquestionable  also  is  the  more  or  less 
ominous  fact  that  a  class  consciousness  is  slowly 
evolving  in  the  mill  people,  which  must  profoundly 
affect  the  political  South  of  the  future.  The  na- 
tive clannishness  of  Southerners,  and  especially  of 
"mountain  whites,"  intensified  as  it  is  now  by  self- 
interest,  is  provided  with  a  closely  knit  and  compact 
community  life,  entirely  isolated  from  contact  with 
the  general  community,  that  affords  a  tilled  hot-bed 
for  the  growth  of  class  consciousness,  as  though  all 
the  elements  had  been  carefully  arranged  for  that 
purpose. 


CHAPTER  66 

THE   NEW  south:  SOCIAL.  CHANGES 

Nowhere  has  the  persistent  social  contrast  be- 
tween the  North  and  the  South  been  portrayed  more 
vividly  or  with  franker  open-mindedness  than  by  a 
veteran  of  the  Confederate  army  in  a  book  entitled, 
**The  Brothers*  War."*  Cross  the  Ohio,  he  says, 
and  you  have  entered  another  country:  behind  you, 
a  land  of  corn  pone,  biscuits,  three  hot  meals  a  day, 
and  houses  tended  shiftlessly  by  negro  servants; 
before  you,  a  land  of  bakers'  bread,  with  hardly 
more  than  one  warm  meal  a  day,  and  the  houses  kept 
as  "neat  as  a  pin"  by  the  mothers  and  daughters  of 
the  family.  Behind  you,  a  crude  and  feeble  rural 
school  system,  no  government  by  town  meeting, 
scant  direct  legislation,  great  public  activity  by  the 
county  and  hardly  any  on  the  part  of  its  sub- 
divisions ;  before  you,  a  common  school  system  ener- 
getically improving,  government  by  town  meeting 
instead  of  representatives,  and  buoyant  energy  of 
the  township  in  public  affairs.  Southerners  are 
quick  to  return  a  blow  for  insulting  words,  and  are 
prone  to  the  use  of  deadly  weapons;  while  North- 
erners are  generally  as  averse  from  personal  vio- 
lence as  were  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  *'The  battle 
cry  of  the  Confederates  was  a  wild  cheering — a  fox- 
hunt yell,  as  we  called  it ;  that  of  the  Union  soldiers 
was  huzza!  huzza!  huzza!  From  the  beginning  to 
the  end,  even  at  Franklin  and  Bentonville,  and  at 

I  By  John  C.  Reed:  Boston,  1906;  p.  60. 

316 


NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  CHANGES       317 

Fannville,  just  two  days  before  I  was  surrendered 
at  Appomattox,  the  Confederates  always,  if  pos- 
sible, took  the  offensive ;  the  Union  soldiers  were  like 
the  sturdy  Englishmen,  whose  tactics  from  Has- 
tings to  Waterloo  have  generally  been  defensive." 

The  differences  of  which  such  contrasts  are  symp- 
tomatic derive  largely  from  the  fact  that  the  South, 
in  consequence  chiefly  of  slavery,  which  debarred 
immigration,  has  remained  singularly  homogeneous, 
old-fashioned  and  unchangeable,  while  the  North, 
stirred  by  a  constant  influx  of  new  blood  as  well  as 
by  the  stimulus  of  a  diversified  economic  activity, 
may  lack  charm,  but  certainly  possesses  eflBciency. 

The  South  is  beginning  to  change,  however,  not 
only  politically,  but  socially — profoundly  and 
rapidly  so.  These  changes  are  largely  connected 
with  the  extensive  introduction  of  manufacture,  and 
chiefly  cotton  manufacture.  All  three  white  classes 
of  the  old-time  South  are  involved:  the  "first  fami- 
lies," wealthy  planters  and  former  slave-holders; 
the  **poor  whites,"  or  small  tenants,  despised  by  the 
ante-bellum  negro  and  widely  misapprehended  to- 
day; and  the  great  middle  class  who  have  always 
existed  in  the  South  in  spite  of  an  evident  determi- 
nation on  the  part  of  many  writers  to  ignore  them. 

From  each  of  these  classes  large  numbers  are 
** going  into  business;"  keen  young  scions  of  **de 
quality ' '  vying  in  maAuf acturing  enterprise  with  the 
sons  of  their  fathers '  overseers,  while  from  the  mid- 
dle class  as  well  as  the  ranks  of  ''poor  whites"  the 
people  are  flocking  to  the  mills  and  forsaking  coun- 
try homes  for  the  city.  What  Holland  Thompson 
says  of  North  Carolina  ^  is  true,  to  a  greater  or  less 

2 From  the  Cotton  Field  to  the  Cotton  Mill;  a  Study  of  the 
Industrial  Transition  in  North  Carolina:     New  York,  1906;  p.  8. 


J/ 


318        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

degree,  of  the  South  as  a  whole.  **  Communities 
which  had  altered  little  since  the  days  of  Cornwallis 
are  feeling  the  modern  industrial  spirit.  'Business' 
is  being  exalted  to  a  position  heretofore  unknown. 
A  type  of  shrewd,  far-sighted  business  man  is  being 
developed.  The  'Southern  Yankees'  devote  them- 
selves exclusively  to  their  work  and  need  ask  no 
favors  in  any  contest  of  commercial  strategy.  So- 
cial lines  are  shifting.  Families  which  have  de- 
cidedly influenced  the  spirit  of  the  community  be- 
come less  important,  unless  they  take  part  in  the 
new  movement.  There  are  signs  of  class  distinc- 
tions based  upon  wealth  and  business  success.  The 
whole  attitude  of  mind  has  changed  more  during  the 
last  fifteen  years  than  in  the  fifty  preceding. ' ' 

A  discussion  of  the  amazing  development  of  cot- 
ton manufacture  largely  responsible  for  this  change 
is  reserved  for  the  last  section  of  this  book.  Mean- 
while it  may  not  come  amiss  to  attempt  a  portrait 
of  the  Southern  leader  as  he  is  to-day:  cotton  mill 
president  or  manager,  banker  or  attorney  or  editor 
— the  man  who,  more  than  any  other,  is  making  '  *  the 
new  South"  and  being  made  by  it. 

It  would  be  folly  to  question  his  Americanism ;  to 
himself  it  never  occurs  that  this  could  be  open  to 
question.  His  loyalty  to  the  flag  and  the  Union, 
being  quietly  unconscious  of  itself,  is  an  ingrained 
habit  of  thought.  Perhaps  his  sires  fought  in  the 
Revolution,  so  that  all  of  his  earlier  family  tradi- 
tions are  interwoven  with  Union  patriotism;  while 
the  Civil  War  he  is  likely  to  regard  as  a  final  arbit- 
rament of  issues  inherent  in  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, issues  as  between  States-rights  and  a  centrip- 
etal sovereignty,  which  had  to  be  determined  in 


NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  CHANGES      319 

some  way,  and  happened  to  be  determined  by  a  war ; 
a  war  which  he  looks  back  upon  as  terrible,  but  in 
connection  with  which  he  would  never  think  of 
apologizing  for  the  part  his  own  people  took  in  it. 
He  thinks  they  were  every  whit  as  honest  and  as 
patriotic  as  the  Unionists.  Being  rather  better  edu- 
cated in  constitutional  law  than  men  of  his  kind  in 
the  North  are  apt  to  be,  and  gifted  in  oral  expres- 
sion, he  is  quite  ready  to  demonstrate  the  Confeder- 
ate point  of  view  in  an  argument;  but  he  will  tell 
you  frankly  that  the  theory  would  never  have 
worked  out  in  practise,  and  will  certainly  rejoice 
with  you  in  the  passing  of  African  slavery.  He 
thinks  that  Lincoln  was  a  very  great  man,  and  that 
Lee  was  very  great  also.  Stonewall  Jackson  he  ad- 
mires, but  is  not  so  enthusiastic  over  Davis.  He  is 
generally  ready  to  give  the  great  Union  soldiers 
their  due,  although  he  is  likely  to  think,  with  Grady, 
that  General  Sherman  was  sometimes  ''rather  care- 
less with  fire." 

He  takes  a  broad  outlook  on  the  world  to-day, 
knowing  his  New  York  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
probably  reading  a  New  York  newspaper  daily ;  but 
his  interest  is  also  keen  in  Liverpool  and  London, 
Bremen  and  Havre,  and  in  the  prospects  for  in- 
creased cotton  trade  with  the  Orient.  He  is  likely 
to  have  more  imagination  than  his  corresponding 
type  above  the  border,  and  to  possess,  quite  uncon- 
sciously, an  ingratiating  social  charm  that  mani- 
fests itself  sometimes  in  a  generosity  bordering  on 
extravagance.  Rather  than  seem  mean — a  cardinal 
sin  in  his  decalogue — he  may  occasionally  spend 
more  than  his  income.  Very  polite  to  the  ladies,  he 
gives  up  his  seat  in  a  crowded  car  without  question, 
and  shows  great  deference  to  his  wife,  although  it  is 


320        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

perhaps  to  be  doubted  whether  he  exercises  any 
greater  alacrity  than  his  Northerly  neighbor  in  get- 
ting up  on  wintry  mornings  to  start  the  fire. 

He  is  a  hard  worker,  and  takes  pride  in  his  work ; 
but  is  able  to  forget  it  more  easily  than  the  aver- 
age American  business  man,  tossing  it  lightly  from 
his  shoulders  when  enjoying  a  *'day  off,"  and  let- 
ting the  world  go  hang  in  a  spirit  of  boyishness  that 
always  seems  ready  for  summons.  Self-confident 
and  easy,  he  lacks  to  a  relative  degree  what  Owen 
Wister  calls  **the  nervousness  of  democracy." 

Writing  of  George  Washington's  simplicity,  this 
brilliant  author  has  expressed  a  pungent  criticism 
of  which  Americans  ought  to  take  notice.  *'Our 
fathers,"  he  said,  *'had  more  of  it  than  we  of  to- 
day, and  it  would  be  well  for  us  if  we  could  regain 
it.  The  Englishman  of  to-day  is  superior  to  us  in 
it;  he  has  in  general,  no  matter  what  his  station 
[and  this  applies  also  to  the  typical  Southerner], 
a  quiet  way  of  doing  and  of  being,  of  letting  himself 
alone,  that  we  in  general  lack.  We  cannot  seem  to 
let  ourselves  alone ;  we  must  talk  when  there  is  noth- 
ing to  say;  we  must  joke — especially  we  must  joke 
— when  there  is  no  need  for  it,  and  when  nobody 
asks  to  be  entertained.  This  is  the  nervousness  of 
democracy ;  we  are  uncertain  if  the  other  man  thinks 
we  are  'as  good'  as  he  is;  therefore  we  must  prove 
that  we  are,  at  first  sight,  by  some  sort  of  per- 
formance. Such  doubt  never  occurs  to  the  estab- 
lished man,  to  the  man  whose  case  is  proven;  he  is 
not  thinking  about  what  we  think  of  him.  So  the 
Indian,  so  the  frontiersman,  does  not  live  in  this 
restlessness.  Nor  did  Washington;  and  therefore 
he  moved  always  in  simplicity,  that  balanced  and 
wholesome  ease  of  the  spirit,  which  when  it  comes 


NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  CHANaES       321 

among  those  who  must  be  showing  off  from  moment 
to  moment,  shines  like  a  quiet  star  upon  fire- 
works. "  ^ 

And  yet  there  is  a  certain  **techiness"  about  your 
typical  Southerner  that  he  were  very  much  better 
without.  "Honor"  is  too  much  to  the  surface,  with 
him,  his  skin  is  too  thin,  there  are  needless  chips  on 
his  shoulders.  You  can  usually  stir  him  up  easily, 
especially  if  you  talk  about  race  questions.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  he  treats  the  negro  not  only  fairly, 
but  kindly;  he  is  almost  certain  to  have  one  negro 
friend  who  proudly  claims  him  as  a  sort  of  feudal 
defender  in  time  of  trouble,  and  whom  he  would  go 
to  great  lengths  to  help  out  of  it.  But  ''race 
equality"  is  meaningless  to  him  unless  it  implies  in- 
termarriage, which  of  course  is  the  final  test  of  racial 
equality ;  and  so  when  you  touch  on  that  topic,  how- 
ever remotely,  he  is  likely  to  show  irritation.  In- 
clined to  impatience  with  what  he  deems  Northern 
presumptuousness,  based,  as  he  thinks,  on  crass 
ignorance,  he  resents  patronage  or  condescension  or 
even  well-meaning  apology  for  his  "Southland"  as 
he  would  a  pestiferous  plague.  Yet  nobody  could 
hate  more  intensely  than  he  does  such  books  as  * '  The 
Clansman,"  or  such  political  diseases  as  Bleaseism. 
Acutely  aware  of  the  problems  of  the  South,  includ- 
ing the  race  problem,  child  labor,  and  illiteracy, 
what  he  is  likely  to  call  ''Yankee  meddling"  irri- 
tates him  profoundly,  and  he  believes  that  the  South 
will  solve  its  own  problems  in  time,  and  the  less 
* 'meddling"  the  sooner  wiU  she  solve  them.  Tender 
and  reverent  toward  religion,  albeit  reserved  to  the 
point  of  shyness  about  it,  he  withal  cherishes  a  fine 
sort  of  idealism  that  thus  far,  in  spite  of  his  new  ab- 

8  The  Seven  Ages  of  Washington:     New  York,  1907. 


322        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

sorption  in  business,  and  a  really  surprising  ef- 
ficiency in  it,  has  saved  him  from  exalting  money 
into  an  end  in  itself,  and  enabled  him  to  treat  it  as 
** means." — Altogether,  a  fine  type  of  man,  lovable 
for  some  of  his  faults,  and  likely  to  outgrow  the 
others.  When  he  goes  to  live  in  New  York  or  other 
large  cities  he  almost  always  ** makes  good."  But 
he  should  stay  where  he  is.    The  South  needs  him. 


CHAPTER  67 

THE   NEW   south:      SOCIAL  PBOBLEMS 

The  race  problem  is,  of  course,  the  most  deplor- 
able relic  of  slavery.  Some  one  has  said  that  the 
Southern  people  are  inside  this  fog,  and  cannot  see 
out,  while  the  Northerners,  outside  of  it,  cannot  see 
in.  A  better  understanding,  however,  is  coming 
about  with  the  facilitation  of  travel,  which  is  pro- 
foundly educative,  and  with  the  emergence  of  race 
problems  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  leading  both 
sides  to  substitute  intelligent  sympathy  for  stupid 
recrimination.  To  men  like  the  late  Booker  T. 
Washington  among  negroes  and  William  D. 
Weatherford  among  Southern  white  men  the  leaders 
of  both  races  may  look  with  bright  hopes  of  the  fu- 
ture. The  Southern  Sociological  Congress,  organ- 
ized of  white  and  black  members  ''to  study  and  im- 
prove social,  civic,  and  economic  conditions  in  the 
South";  *'to  enlist  the  entire  South  in  a  crusade  of 
social  health  and  righteousness"  on  a  platform  of 
''Brotherhood,"  has  already  held  several  annual 
meetings.  Inaugurated  by  Governor  Ben  W. 
Hooper  of  Tennessee,  founded  by  Mrs.  Anna  Russell 
Cole  of  Nashville,  supported  from  the  start  by  all 
Southern  governors,  except  one  who  has  since  been 
repudiated  by  his  people,  this  Congress  investigates 
such  questions  as  public  health,  courts  and  prisons, 
child  welfare,  organized  charities,  race  problems, 
and  "the  Church  and  social  service,"  in  a  spirit  of 

323 


324        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

tolerant  open-minded  sympathy.  At  the  close  of  a 
volume  of  proceedings  the  following  statement  is 
made  for  this  Congress : 

*  *  No  one  who  has  attended  the  sessions  of  this  sec- 
tional conference  could  fail  to  realize  that  there  is  a 
growing  and  deepening  interest  on  the  part  of  South- 
ern white  men  in  the  nine  million  negroes  who  live 
by  our  sides  in  the  South. — The  meeting  was  char- 
acterized by  sanity,  scientific  investigation,  a  spirit 
of  cooperation,  and  an  intense  desire  for  helpfulness 
to  all.  A  great  many  of  the  leading  universities  in 
the  South  were  represented  by  their  professors  or 
presidents,  and  it  was  evident  from  the  very  outset 
that  the  best  thinkers  of  both  races  had  come  to- 
gether with  the  determination  to  study,  without 
prejudice,  this  greatest  problem  of  the  entire 
South."  1 

Just  as  it  was  cotton  that  brought  the  negro  to 
the  South  and  enslaved  him,  so  it  is  this  plant  now 
that  chiefly  employs  and  improves  him  as  he  labors 
with  liberated  hands.  Constituting  thirty  per  cent 
of  Southern  population  at  large,  he  makes  up  forty 
per  cent  of  all  persons  engaged  in  Southern  farm- 
ing. In  every  State  south  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon 
line  he  forms  a  dwindling  element  of  general  popula- 
tion, but  in  all  of  these  States  except  Louisiana  he  is 
an  increasing  factor  in  the  farming  population.  Not 
only  so,  but  a  steady  drift  of  negroes  is  proceeding 
from  the  cities  to  the  country,  and  it  is  in  cotton 
farming  that  the  negro  chiefly  succeeds.  Nearly 
one-fourth  of  all  the  black  farmers  in  the  South  own 
the  lands  they  cultivate — amounting  in  value   to 

I  Readers  who  may  be  interested  in  this,  the  most  important  of 
all  movements  for  solution  of  the  Southern  race  problem,  may  ob- 
tain information  by  addressing  J.  E.  McCulloch,  General  Secretary, 
Southern  Sociological  Congress,  Nashville,  Tenn. 


NEW  SOUTH:.  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS     325 

$500,000,000,  for  in  less  than  fifty  years  the  negro 
has  acquired  nearly  20,000,000  acres  of  land.  The 
Russian  serfs,  after  fifty  years  of  freedom,  have  not 
made  greater  headway.  They  have  not  done  so  well, 
indeed,  in  their  conquest  of  illiteracy.^ 

Illiteracy  is  no  doubt  the  heaviest  incubus,  except 
the  race  problem  itself,  loaded  on  the  South  by  negro 
slavery.  It  is  not  confined  to  the  negroes.  The  sup- 
port of  the  system  of  slavery  was  so  exacting  on  the 
time  and  energy  and  spirit  of  the  masters  as  to  re- 
tard the  establishment  of  an  adequate  system  of 
schools ;  pointedly  illustrating  the  acute  remark  of  a 
British  economist,  '*We  are  apt  to  think  of  one  as 
bond,  and  the  other  as  free;  but  both  are  bond."^ 
The  '* white  trash"  of  the  South,  neglected  by  the 
ante-bellum  ruling  classes  and  despised  by  the  slave 
as  "po'  buckra,"  are  only  now  beginning  to  escape 
from  the  shackles  of  ignorance.  But  the  Southern 
States  are  showing  an  amazing  interest  in  education, 
their  public  school  systems  probably  proceeding  at 
a  more  rapid  rate  of  improvement  in  recent  years 
than  in  any  other  part  of  the  nation.  Between  1900 
and  1910  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  in  the  South  as 
a  whole  fell  from  23.3  per  cent,  to  15.6  per  cent., 
while  the  census  report  calls  attention  to  the  decline 
in  the  proportion  of  illiterates  among  the  negroes  of 
the  South, — from  nearly  one-half  down  to  one- 
third, — as  "particularly  conspicuous."  During  the 
seven  year  period  between  1907  and  1914,  the  num- 
ber of  high  schools  in  South  Carolina  grew  from 
ninety-five,  with  235  teachers,  to  175,  with  560  teach- 

2  W.  M.  Hunley,  The  Economic  Status  of  the  Negro,  in  The 
Human   Way:     Nashville,    1913;    p.   27. 

3  For  an  interesting  amplification  of  this  principle,  see  Norman 
Angell:  The  Foundations  of  International  Polity:  London,  1914; 
page  13. 


326        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

ers;  and  this  is  a  fair  representation  of  what  is 
happening  throughout  the  whole  South. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  labor  of  children  in 
the  cotton  mills,  bad  as  it  is,  is  nevertheless  an  influ- 
ential agency  in  reducing  the  illiteracy  of  ''poor 
whites."  From  personal  observation  covering  an 
extended  period  in  cotton  mill  towns  of  the  South,  as 
well  as  in  the  ** backwoods,"  the  present  writer  be- 
lieves that  the  condition  of  youthful  operatives  in 
these  mills  makes  on  the  whole  more  for  their  ad- 
vancement than  did  the  environment  from  which 
they  have  frequently  removed.  This  is  not  to  say 
that  conditions  are  by  any  means  ideal ;  far  from  it. 
But  just  as  the  hook-worm  disease  is  disappearing 
by  virtue  of  the  substitution  of  measurable  sanita- 
tion for  none  at  all,  so  the  schooling  now  provided 
by  mill  management  for  adolescent  operatives  is  far 
better  than  backwoods  illiteracy;  while  the  welfare 
work  carried  on  by  such  "soldiers  of  the  common 
good"  as  D.  E.  Camak  at  Spartanburg  and  J.  A. 
Baldwin  at  Charlotte,  in  cordial  cooperation  with 
the  mill  owners,  sets  an  example  to  the  country  and 
the  world.* 

Mrs.  J.  Borden  Harriman  said,  at  the  sixth  annual 
meeting  of  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee: 
"Those  familiar  with  the  history  of  cotton  manu- 
facturing in  New  England  tell  us  that  the  first  im- 
petus toward  uplifting  the  social  status  of  the  work- 
ing people  of  that  section  was  given  by  the  cotton 
factory.  If  such  has  been  the  case  in  New  England, 
more  especially  has  it  been  so  in  the  South. — In 
every  mill  village  of  any  importance  in  either  North 
or  South  Carolina  or  Virginia  I  found  some  sort  of 

*See  the  World's  Work  for  July  and  August,  1914:     New  York. 


NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS     327 

welfare  work  for  both  elders  and  children.  I  can- 
not believe  that  anywhere  is  there  a  finer  spirit  or 
stronger  wish  to  uplift  the  weaker  classes  than 
among  some  Southern  mill  owners. ' '  '^ 

Critics  of  child  labor  in  Southern  cotton  mills 
should  remember  not  only  such  facts  as  those  above 
cited,  but  also  certain  differences  in  economic  en- 
vironment that  invalidate  New  England  conditions 
as  a  proper  analogy  for  unqualified  application  to 
the  South.  New  England  manufacture,  long  estab- 
lished and  therefore  proportionately  expert,  has 
reached  a  stage  of  development  in  which  the  finer 
grades  of  goods  are  produced  on  a  scale  as  yet  unat- 
tained  in  most  of  the  young  mills  in  the  South  (see 
page  342).  This  not  only  means  a  higher  wage  scale 
in  New  England  in  return  for  the  skilled  labor  neces- 
sary to  the  production  of  finer  goods,  but  it  means, 
conversely,  that  children  may  be  employed  in  South- 
ern mills  at  simple  tasks  for  which  no  equivalent  em- 
ployment exists  in  New  England.  Crompton's 
**mule,*'  for  example,  now  evolved  into  highly  com- 
plex machinery,  is  used  almost  exclusively  for  the 
spinning  of  the  higher  grades  of  yarn.    As  it  is 

6  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science; 
Supplement:  Philadelphia,  March,  1910. — "Some  of  the  finest  and 
most  generous  sentiments  against  child  labor  was  expressed  to  me 
by  leaders  in  the  South,  and  among  mill-owners  and  managers 
themselves  there  are  many  examples  of  desire  to  promote  the  wel- 
fare of  the  cotton-mill  child  and  his  parent.  I  think  the  chance 
of  a  modern  Dickens  to  exploit  cotton-mill  fiction  is  fading.  The 
native  Southern  mill-owner,  like  the  native  Southern  railway-owner 
before  him,  has  developed  brutality  in  less  degree  than  some  of  his 
Northern  prototypes.  Some  of  the  largest  mill-owners  whose  names 
I  heard  again  and  again  in  the  South  are  at  heart  staunch  friends 
of  strict  child-labor  legislation. — From  what  I  learned,  I  think 
the  evils  of  child-labor  are  likely  soon  to  disappear,  and  with  a 
minimum  of  friction  and  antagonism,  if  some  of  the  Northern  cotton 
capitalists  who  are  becoming  interested  in  the  Southern  mills  keep 
their  hands  off." — F.  M.  Davenport,  staff  correspondence  in  the 
New  York  Outlook,  Feb.  23,  1916;  p.  428. 


328        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

physically  impossible  for  children  to  operate  mules, 
no  demand  for  child  labor  arises  from  their  extensive 
use  in  New  England.  In  the  South,  however,  the 
*'mule"  is  almost  unknown;  the  indefinitely  simpler 
**ring  frames"  being  adequate  to  the  production  of 
the  coarser  cheap  yarns,  which  children  can  easily 
spin  on  these  frames. 

Much  of  the  Southern  child  labor,  moreover,  is 
light  and  intermittent.  *  *  Doffers, ' '  or  boys  who  look 
after  the  bobbins,  work  from  twenty  to  forty-five 
minutes  in  each  hour,  spending  their  spare  time  in 
one  another 's  company  within  the  mill,  or  even  play- 
ing outside  in  the  yard.  The  younger  girls,  who 
serve  as  thread-menders,  often  have  long  periods  of 
rest,  although  compelled  to  watch  carefully  for  pos- 
sible breaks. 

On  the  whole,  Mr.  Holland  Thompson  ^  is  right  in 
asserting  that  the  child  labor  of  Southern  cotton 
mills  is  far  less  detrimental  than  that  of  glass  fac- 
tories or  coal  mines,  and  preferable  either  to  news- 
boy labor  or  even  to  that  of  a  cash  boy  or  cash  girl  in 
a  busy  department  store,  where  ventilation  is  usually 
decidedly  inferior  to  the  air  in  a  cotton  mill. 

As  to  the  wage  scale,  it  should  be  remembered,  fur- 
ther, that  the  cost  of  living  is  lower  in  the  South 
than  in  New  England.  But  when  all  is  said,  it  still 
remains  true  that  the  strain  of  long  hours  of  con- 
finement to  the  care  of  exacting  and  noisy  machinery 
drains  the  precious  vitality  of  Southern  children, 
especially  when  account  has  been  taken  of  the  poorly 
chosen  and  badly  cooked  food  with  which  untutored 
parents  provide  them.  As  Mrs.  Borden  Harriman 
herself  said,  no  one  of  any  humanity,  especially  no 

«As  cited,  p.  228. 


NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS     329 

mother,  can  see  a  little  child  at  work  in  a  mill,  with 
all  that  this  may  mean,  without  a  feeling  of  horror 
and  indignation.  No  circumstances  make  child  labor 
right.  It  is  a  phase  in  the  evolution  of  the  Southern 
cotton  industry  which  is  properly  doomed  to  disap- 
pear. Meanwhile,  there  is  immediate  hope  for  such 
measures  of  alleviation  as  the  raising  of  the  mini- 
mum age  for  employment  from  twelve  years,  now 
universal  throughout  the  South,  to  fourteen ;  the  en- 
actment of  an  eight-hour  law,  which  is  vitally  neces- 
sary; and,  perhaps,  for  the  transfer  of  schooling 
facilities  from  mill  management  to  a  system  con- 
ducted by  the  State.  It  would  be  a  further  distinct 
advantage  could  the  mill  villages  be  broken  up,  and 
the  operatives  encouraged  to  possess  their  own 
homes,  dispersed  in  the  general  community.'^ 

John  Stuart  Mill's  indictment  of  machinery  still 
challenges  debate,  while  the  hint  of  hopeful  proph- 
ecy with  which  he  follows  it  seems  far  from  fulfil- 
ment. **It  is  questionable,"  he  says,  *'if  all  the  me- 
chanical inventions  yet  made  have  lightened  the 
day's  toil  of  any  human  being.  They  have  enabled 
a  greater  population  to  live  the  same  life  of  drudgery 
and  imprisonment,  and  an  increased  number  to  make 
fortunes.  But  they  have  not  yet  begun  to  effect 
those  great  changes  in  human  destiny  which  it  is  in 
their  nature  and  in  their  futurity  to  accomplish. ' '  ^ 
The  eighteenth  century  riots  in  England  against  the 
inventions  of  Kay  and  Hargreaves  and  their  com- 
panions in  genius  were  doubtless  not  based  on  in- 
telligent reasoning,  but  they  at  least  expressed  a  true 
prophetic  instinct. 

18.  J.  Derrick,  'The  Cotton  Mill  Population  of  the  South,"  in 
Vewberry   (S.  C.)    College  Bulletin:     February,  1915,  p.  35  flF. 
8  Cited  by  Norman  Angell. 


330        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD.  POWER 

Enough  has  surely  been  said  to  show  the  enormous 
influence,  political,  financial,  and  social,  which  cot- 
ton still  wields  in  the  South ;  changed  in  form  from 
that  which  obtained  before  the  Civil  War,  but  equally- 
powerful;  an  influence  that  achieves  its  most  pic- 
turesque and  convincing  illustration,  perhaps,  when, 
on  the  mills  closing  down  in  hard  times,  the  oper- 
atives may  occasionally  be  seen  moving,  with  their 
meager  belongings,  back  to  the  farms,  so  as  to  culti- 
vate once  more  the  plant  of  which  the  temporarily  in- 
flated price  has  simultaneously  made  its  manufacture 
unprofitable,  and  its  production  alluringly  remuner- 
ative. Thus,  at  such  times,  a  fluctuating  market 
actually  exerts  a  literal  back-and-f  orth  pull  on  a  part 
of  the  Southern  population ;  prices  having  driven  the 
small  farmers  into  the  mill  towns  in  the  first  place, 
so  as  to  better  their  condition,  and  high  prices  luring 
them  back  for  a  season;  for  ** there  is  always  the 
land  to  which  they  may  return  if  beaten."  But 
nearly  all  of  them  drift  back  to  the  mill  towns  again, 
for  the  sake  of  better  housing,  better  food,  better 
clothing,  and,  above  all,  better  social  facilities  than 
can  be  found  in  the  deadly  isolation  of  the  back- 
woods. 

In  other  words,  most  of  these  people  who  feel  the 
pull  of  the  mill  yield  to  it  rather  from  choice  than 
from  the  compulsion  of  absolute  necessity.  One  of 
them,  dowered  with  a  touch  of  philosophy,  put  their 
feeling  into  the  clever  phrase,  "It's  not  doing  well 
that  makes  people  contented,  it's  doing  better!"^ 

When  more  intelligent  agricultural  methods  come 
to  prevail  and  rural  life  is  redeemed  from  its  lone- 
liness, they  may  find  a  fuller  contentment  on  the 

B  Holland  Thompson,  as  cited,  p.  210. 


NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS     331 

farm.    Improvement  of  rural  conditions  should  be 
the  chief  aim  of  all  Southern  statesmanship.^^ 

10  The  writer  lacks  the  experience  and  knowledge  necessary  to 
trace  the  powerful  but  highly  intricate  and  complicated  influence 
of  cotton  manufacture  on  social  conditions  in  New  England. 

An  important  national  Child  Labor  bill  has  just  passed  both 
houses  of  Congress  as  this  book  goes  to  press.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  the  courts  will  declare  it  imconstitutional,  as  was  the  case 
with  the  Lever  bill  attempting  to  regulate  "futures." 


BOOK  vn 

COTTON  AND  WORLD  TEADE 


NOTE  ON  THE  WORLD'S  COTTON  MARKETS 

The  cotton  markets  which  by  force  of  economic  circumstances 
have  risen  to  the  place  of  great  world-markets  are  New  York  and 
New  Orleans,  in  the  United  States;  Liverpool,  in  England;  Bremen, 
in  Germany;  Havre,  in  France;  Alexandria,  in  Egypt;  and  Bom- 
bay, in  India.  But  among  these  seven  markets  there  are  diflfer- 
ences  in  the  degree  to  which  their  economic  and  commercial  func- 
tions are  developed,  so  that  in  only  five  can  it  be  said  that  every 
kind  of  operation  required  in  the  cotton  business  is  continuously 
carried  on — Bremen  merchants  being  obliged  by  German  govern- 
mental action  to  rely  mainly  upon  Liverpool  and  New  York  to 
transact  an '  essential  part  of  their  business,  while  Bombay,  be- 
sides being  deficient  in  commercial  methods,  deals  in  a  kind  of 
cotton  which,  though  of  general  value,  is  of  a  peculiar  quality 
and  much  less  desirable  for  spinners  than  cotton  of  other  growths. 
Of  the  five  remaining  markets,  two,  Havre  and  Alexandria,  have 
limitations  which  remove  them  from  the  class  of  very  first  im- 
portance. The  business  of  Havre,  though  fully  developed  in  all 
its  forms,  is  chiefly  confined  to  serving  the  needs  of  France,  which 
is  comparatively  low  in  the  list  of  cotton-consuming  countries.  In 
Alexandria,  all  operations  are  confined  to  cotton  of  Egyptian  growth, 
which  is  produced  in  comparatively  small  amounts  and  conse- 
quently affects  only  to  a  moderate  extent  the  general  problem  of 
the  supply  of  cotton  and  the  demand  for  it.  Thus  we  are  brought 
to  the  conclusion  that  even  among  the  major  cotton  markets  of  the 
world  there  are  only  three  of  the  very  highest  class,  New  York 
and  New  Orleans,  in  the  United  States,  and  Liverpool,  in  Eng- 
■J  land.  The  entire  cotton  trade  looks  to  them  for  guidance  day  by 
day. — Condensed  from  A.  R.  Marsh,  as  cited. 


CHAPTER  68 

**THE   MONEY   CEOP*' 

An  enthusiastic  and  unusually  well  informed  pro- 
fessor of  agriculture  in  North  Carolina  said  to  his 
audience : 

**  You  get  up  in  the  morning  from  a  bed,  clothed  in 
cotton.  You  step  out  on  a  cotton  rug.  You  let  in 
the  light  by  raising  a  cotton  window-shade.  You 
wash  with  soap  made  partly  from  cottonseed  oil 
products.  You  dry  your  face  on  a  cotton  towel. 
You  array  yourself  chiefly  in  cotton  clothing.  The 
'silk'  in  which  your  wife  dresses  is  probably  mercer- 
ized cotton.  At  the  breakfast  table  you  do  not  get 
away  from  King  Cotton;  cottolene  has  probably 
taken  the  place  of  lard  in  the  biscuit  you  eat.  The 
beef  and  the  mutton  were  probably  fattened  on  cot- 
tonseed meal  and  hulls.  Your  'imported  olive  oil* 
is  more  likely  from  a  Texas  cotton  farm  than  from 
an  Italian  villa.  Your  'butter'  is  probably  a  prod- 
uct of  Southern  cottonseed.  The  coal  that  burns 
in  the  fire  may  have  been  mined  by  the  light  of  a 
cotton-oil  lamp.  The  sheep  from  which  your 
woolen  clothing  came  were  probably  fed  on  cotton- 
seed. The  tonic  you  take  may  contain  an  extract  of 
cotton  root-bark.  The  tobacco  you  smoke  not  un- 
likely grew  under  a  cotton  cover  and  is  put  up  in  a 
cotton  bag.  Your  morning  daily  may  be  printed  on 
cotton  waste  paper — and  even  in  that  skirmish  it  tells 
about,  the  contending  forces  were  clothed  in  khaki 

335 


336        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

duck,  slept  under  cotton  tents,  cotton  was  an  essen- 
tial in  the  high  explosives  that  were  used,  and  when 
at  last  war  had  done  its  worst,  surgery  itself  called 
cotton  into  requisition  to  aid  the  injured  and 
dying."  ^ 

The  professor's  words  would  have  fitted  almost 
as  well  had  he  been  addressing  an  audience  in  Eu- 
rope or  Australia  or  Japan,  so  inextricably  has  this 
"vegetable  wool"  from  the  Orient  interwoven  itseK 
with  the  civilization  of  the  globe ;  and  yet  a  century 
and  a  quarter  ago  its  influence  had  but  just  broken 
out  of  India  into  England,  and  meant  nothing  what- 
ever to  America.  In  1783  the  value  of  raw  cotton 
exports  from  the  United  States  was  nil,  in  1883  it 
was  nearly  $250,000,000,  and  in  1913,  or  thirty  years 
later,  it  was  more  than  double  what  it  had  been  in 
1883.  A  report  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Commerce  has  already  been  cited  to  illustrate  its 
present  relative  value  as  an  export  (see  page  3). 
This  may  be  supplemented  by  an  exhibit  of  the  ex- 
ports for  1911.2  The  total  raw  cotton  exports  for 
that  year  exceeded  by  $53,000,000  the  next  four 
largest  groups  of  exports,  namely :  wheat  and  wheat 
flour;  cattle,  meat,  and  dairy  products;  iron  and 
steel  manufactures ;  and  copper  manufactures — these 
four  great  groups  aggregating  $556,789,750,  while 
the  raw  cotton  exported  within  the  same  period 
amounted  to  $610,475,301,  to  say  nothing  of  nearly 
$29,000,000  worth  of  exports  in  cotton  manufactures. 
The  American  crop  amounts  roughly  to  one  billion 
dollars,  of  which  about  40  per  cent  is  consumed  at 
home. 

1  Adapted  from  the  iBtroduction  to  Cotton ;  C.  W.  Burkett  and 
C.  H.  Poe:     New  York,  1906. 

2  See  Appendix  F :  2d  for  comparative  table. 


<*THE  MONEY  CROP"  337 

Not  only  has  cotton  grown  within  a  century  and 
a  quarter  from  a  share  of  only  4.4  per  cent  in  the 
chief  raiment  supplies  of  known  markets,  to  73.13 
per  cent,^  but  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  crop  of 
the  world  is  grown  in  the  United  States,  which  pro- 
duced only  %  of  1  per  cent  when  Whitney  invented 
the  gin.  India  now  follows  with  11.3  per  cent, 
Egypt  with  6.5  per  cent,  Russia  with  5.4  per  cent; 
then  China,  Russia  and  Brazil,  and  ** miscellaneous." 
Measured  by  value  instead  of  by  volume,  the  United 
States  leads  with  70  per  cent,  India  comes  next  with 
12  per  cent,  while  Egypt,  because  of  superiority  of 
product,  yields  10  per  cent  in  values  as  against  only 
6.5  per  cent  in  volume,  the  remaining  8  per  cent 
being  distributed  in  the  order  above  mentioned. 
Set  down  in  dollars,  the  world  trade  in  cotton  is 
accounted  as  follows: 

United  States $1,015,625,000 

British  India 170,000,000 

Egypt 155,000,000 

MiseeUaneous 112,500,000 

$1,453,125,000  * 

While  readers  may  have  been  puzzled  to  account 
for  the  overweening  influence  exercised  by  the  cot- 
ton plant  in  United  States  history,  the  extraordi- 
narily rapid  rise  of  the  now  incomparable  dominance 
of  the  American  share  in  this  monopolistic  world 
crop  explains  a  good  deal,  especially  if  it  be  remem- 
bered that  production  is  practically  confined  to  a 
relatively  small  Southern  section. 

Let  us  look  into  this  interesting  matter  a  little 

3  See  page  5. 

*  Computed  by  John  Wonnald,  Esq.,  of  Manchester;  the  Sprink- 
ler Bulletin:     Manchester,  June,  1913;  p.  702.     But  see  p.  339,  n. 


7 


J 


338        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

further.  Speaking  by  and  large,  cotton  may  fairly 
be  described  as  the  only  natural  monopoly  of  a 
world-wide  necessity;  and  it  is  this  fact  which  ex- 
plains its  peculiar  importance  in  the  interdependence 
of  trade.  The  prime  necessities  of  man  are,  of 
course,  shelter,  food,  and  raiment.  His  luxuries  are 
manifold,  but  his  actual  necessities  are  limited  to 
these  prime  three.  Now,  while  there  is  obviously 
not  even  an  approach  to  monopoly  in  any  one  kind 
of  food-stuff  or  building  material,  yet  when  raiment 
is  considered,  cotton  is  found  so  far  to  surpass  the 
other  textile  fabrics,  such  as  silk,  linen,  and  wool,  in 
respect  of  easily  obtained  quantity,  in  cheapness,  and 
in  general  convenience,  as  to  set  it  beyond  the  bounds 
of  comparison;  monopolizing  approximately  three- 
quarters  of  the  world's  raiment  supply,  and  so  leav- 
ing only  one  quarter  to  be  divided  among  all  of  its 
outstripped  rivals. 

Just  as  cotton  holds  a  practical  monopoly  of  the 
world's  clothing  supply,  so  a  small  group  of  South- 
eastern States  in  North  America  possess  at  pres- 
ent a  virtual  monopoly  of  the  cotton  crop;  nearly 
three-fourths  of  the  world's  entire  supply  being  pro- 
duced in  the  famous  *' Cotton  Belt'^  of  the  United 
States,  comprising  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Texas,  and  Okla- 
homa, with  parts  of  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and 
Florida:  a  territory  of  700,000  square  miles.  Cot- 
ton is  a  sun  plant.  Ideal  conditions  for  its  growth 
require,  in  exactly  proper  combination,  the  ele- 
ments of  bountiful  sunshine;  a  deep,  mellow,  rich 
soil;  a  warm,  steamy  atmosphere,  with  plenteous 
moisture  until  the  bolls  are  well  developed;  but 
a  dryer  soil  and  atmosphere  while  the  fiber  is 
being    ripened    and    harvested.    These    conditions 


**THE  MONEY  CROP"  339 

confine  it  to  a  latitude  extending  about  thirty-six  de- 
grees in  both  directions  from  the  Equator,  and  to 
altitudes  of  not  more  than  a  thousand  feet.  Out- 
side of  the  "Cotton  Belt,"  this  peculiar  combina- 
tion of  conditions  has  not  yet  been  developed  on 
any  large  scale  except  with  the  aid  of  irrigation. 
It  is  little  wonder  that  short-sighted  Southern 
planters  cultivate  their  natural  monopoly  to  the  ex- 
clusion even  of  food-stuffs  necessary  to  self  support, 
enticed  as  they  are  by  this  ''money  crop,"  so  that, 
when  the  price  falls,  as  in  war,  they  feel  the  sudden 
pinch  of  poverty,  and  commit  the  economic  fallacy 
at  all  times  of  paying  the  producer's  and  ''middle- 
man's" profits  on  supplies  requisite  to  their  own 
maintenance,  instead  of  producing  all  of  these  them- 
selves. 

Note. — To  avoid  misapprehension,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  figures  shown  on  page  337  represent  only  the  known  trade  in 
cotton,  and  not  the  absolute  total.  Mr.  A.  R.  Marsh  says:  "No- 
body knows  exactly  how  much  cotton  the  world  grows,  for  there  are 
still  great  portions  of  the  earth,  where  cotton  is  known  to  be 
raised  on  a  vast  scale,  which  are  either  incompletely  or  not  at  all 
covered  by  statistical  information.  India,  e.g.,  produces  every  year 
a  crop  about  whose  magnitude  exact  information  is  limited  to 
the  portion  that  reaches  the  ports.  There  are  some  reasons  for 
thinking  that  China  is  the  greatest  producer  of  cotton  of  all  coun- 
tries." The  Indian  and  Chinese  staples  are,  however,  greatly  in- 
ferior to  those  produced  in  America. 


CHAPTER  69 

SOUTHEBN   MANUFACTUBE 

Slow  to  realize  that  the  production  of  cotton  and 
a  plentiful  supply  of  both  coal  and  water  power  puts 
into  their  hands  a  two-fold  source  of  prosperity,  the 
Southern  people,  once  awake  to  their  manufacturing 
opportunities,  have  improved  them  with  amazing 
rapidity.  As  noted  in  a  previous  chapter,  they  sur- 
passed the  New  Englanders  in  general  manufactur- 
ing enterprise  a  century  ago ;  but  when  cotton  agri- 
culture developed  with  such  sudden  munificence  they 
turned  their  attention  wholly  to  planting,  and  let 
manufacture  slip  through  their  fingers.  It  seems  a 
far-reaching  pity  that  they  did  so.  Had  they  es- 
tablished cotton  factories  side  by  side  with  their 
fields,  the  diversification  of  economic  interests  would 
in  all  probability  have  proved  to  be  a  source  of  great 
benefit  to  the  South,  quickening  the  shrewd  native 
enterprise,  inducing  white  immigration,  serving  as  a 
check  upon  slavery  and  also  on  intensified  section- 
alism, and  possibly  even  averting  the  Civil  War. 

Bygones,  however,  are  bygones.  Now,  being  wiser 
through  observation  and  experience,  the  South- 
erners do  build  factories  in  the  midst  of  their  fields, 
and  conserve  the  larger  profits  of  their  fortune. 
President  Alderman  ^  tells  what  has  happened,  most 
succinctly : 

**Five  hundred  million  pounds  of  cotton  is  an 

1  Library  of  Southern  Literature,  as  cited. 

340 


SOUTHEEN  MANUFACTURE  341 

average  South  Carolina  crop.  Thirty  years  ago, 
Massachusetts  bought  this  crop  at  seven  cents  a 
pound,  leaving  $35,000,000  in  South  Carolina 
pockets.  Massachusetts  then  converted  it  into  cloth 
at  twenty  cents  a  pound,  and  turned  into  her  own 
pockets  $100,000,000.  South  Carolina  now  does  her 
own  converting  into  cloth,  and  keeps  the  $100,000,- 
000  change.'* 

The  race  with  New  England,  fairly  beginning 
about  1880,  when  the  Southern  planter  had  regained 
his  feet  after  the  shock  of  the  war,^  was  won  in 
twenty-five  years.  In  1880  the  South  consumed  only 
188,748  bales,  while  New  England  took  1,129,498. 
By  1890  the  South  had  passed  the  half -million  mark, 
while  New  England  took  a  million  and  a  half.  In 
1900  the  South  kept  a  million  and  a  half,  while  New 
England  took  nearly  two  million.  In  1905,  the 
South  consumed  2,140,151  bales,  while  New  England 
lagged  behind  with  1,753,282.  From  that  time  on  the 
South  has  maintained  a  steady  lead,  the  figures  in 
bales  for  home  consumption  in  1914  iDeing  3,023,415, 
as  against  2,251,041  for  New  England.^ 

In  fact,  the  South  now  outdistances  all  other  States 
combined  in  the  consumption  of  cotton;  the  last 
twenty  years  showing  an  increase  of  nearly  three 
hundred  per  cent  in  the  South,  with  less  than  seventy 
per  cent  in  the  rest  of  the  country,  which  consumed 
2,861,318  bales  in  1914.  As  an  optimistic  young 
journalist  says,  nothing  can  prevail  against  a  cotton 
mill  with  the  cotton  field  at  one  door  and  the  music 
of  the  turbine  water-wheel  singing  at  the  other. 

But  the  South  has  still  far  to  go  in  the  quality  of 

2  It  was  not  until  1900,  however,  that  the  whole  South  regained 
its  per  capita  wealth  of  1860. 

8  See  Appendix  F :  2e  for  comparative  table, 


342        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

the  manufactured  product.  In  1902  an  enterprising 
Carolina  manufacturer  issued  a  unique  volume* 
that  picturesquely  illustrates  the  possible  value  of 
technical  training  if  applied  to  the  North  Carolina 
cotton  crop,  which  was  then  about  half  a  million 
bales.  On  every  alternate  page  is  pasted  a  sample 
of  actual  piece-goods,  beginning  with  the  cheap  quali- 
ties commonly  made  in  North  Carolina,  such  as  duck, 
drill,  and  sheeting;  then  following  in  an  ascending 
scale  with  the  finer  products  of  New  England  mills, 
such  as  gingham,  lawn  and  poplin;  and  concluding 
with  the  exquisite  products  of  German  and  Swiss 
mills,  represented  by  Persian  lawn  and  embroidery. 
Facing  these  samples  Mr.  Tompkins  has  printed  a 
simple  computation,  showing  in  each  case  the  incre- 
ment accruing  to  the  raw  crop  value  from  conversion 
into  ascending  grades  of  cloth.  Even  the  first  and 
cheapest  sample  (of  duck)  adds  $20,000,000  to  the 
annual  wealth  of  a  single  State,  while  the  conversion 
of  500,000  bales  into  fancy  gingham  would  add  over 
$500,000,000.  But  the  domestic  manufacture  of  the 
finer  goods  now  ''made  in  Germany'*  only,  would 
add  nearly  a  thousand  million,  while  Swiss  embroid- 
ery would  mean  five  thousand  million,  or  more  than 
enough  to  buy  all  the  cotton  and  woolen  mills  in  the 
world ! 

The  compiler  of  this  interesting  volume  says: 
**To  manufacture  the  entire  crop  into  embroidery 
would  be  as  undesirable  as  to  turn  it  all  into  duck. 
These  extreme  figures  are  given  to  show  the  wide 
range  of  possibilities  in  the  business. — All  of  the 
samples  shown  are  made  of  cotton ;  but  some  of  the 
finest  were  not  made  of  the  ordinary  cotton  of  our 

*D.  A.  Tompkins,  Cotton  Values  in  Textile  Fabrics:  Charlotte, 
1902. 


SOUTHEEN  MANUFACTUEE  343 

commerce,  and  therefore  it  may  be  contended  that 
the  claim  for  such  princely  values  in  our  cotton  is 
beyond  the  mark.  But  the  goods  were  made  of  a 
kind  of  cotton.  The  cotton  was  grown  under  cer- 
tain conditions.  If  these  conditions  were  well  un- 
derstood, and  the  production  of  cotton  carried  on 
with  sufiBcient  skill,  these  fine  grades  of  cotton  could 
be  raised  over  large  areas  now  devoted  to  the  ordi- 
nary kind.  Therefore  the  argument  resolves  itself 
into  a  question  of  proper  education  and  thrift,  to 
turn  a  possible  cotton  crop  into  thousands  of  times 
the  money  now  realized  on  it  by  the  people  who  pro- 
duce it." 

In  1913  North  Carolina  consumed  almost  aU  of  its 
cotton  crop  of  946,000  bales,  and  thereby  greatly 
augmented  its  wealth.  It  is  conceivable  that  the 
States  of  the  ''Cotton  Belt"  may  eventually  ap- 
proximate a  position  similar  to  that  now  occupied  by 
Massachusetts  and  Ehode  Island,  in  which  agricul- 
tural products  represent  less  than  one-twentieth  of 
the  values  created  by  manufactures,  which  are 
largely  of  cotton.  And  many  thoughtful  students 
of  this  subject  believe  that  the  example  of  North 
Carolina  must  be  followed  by  the  United  States 
as  a  whole  if  the  immense  opportunities  afforded 
through  cotton  production  are  to  be  intelligently 
appropriated. 


CHAPTER  70 

ABE  AMERICANS  EFFICIENT! 

Thebe  are  critics  who  say  roundly  that  American 
technical  skill  is  entitled  to  but  little  credit  for  the 
national  wealth  accruing  from  the  cotton  crop. 
Even  in  the  handling  of  raw  material,  these  critics 
declare,  the  United  States  is  stigmatized  by  the  most 
unscientific  and  indeed  slovenly  methods  of  any  cot- 
ton producing  country  in  the  world;  the  ill  ginned 
and  worse  packed  bales,  shamefully  mangled  by  bad 
methods  of  sampling,^  contrasting  sharply  with  the 
neatly  packeted  products  of  Egyptian  and  Indian 
ginneries  as  they  all  lie  heaped  together  on  the  docks 
of  Hamburg  and  Liverpool.  Sir  Charles  Macara 
observes:  *'If  American  cotton  were  properly 
packed  and  compressed  it  would  occupy  much  less 
space  than  at  present,  and  the  reduced  cost  of  freight 
and  carriage,  together  with  the  preventing  of  im- 
mense waste  caused  by  the  present  slovenly  packing, 
would  mean  an  enormous  annual  saving  estimated 
to  amount  to  millions  of  pounds  sterling. ' '  ^ 

To  state  the  sum  of  all  such  criticisms,  Americans 
have  simply  presumed  on  the  bounties  of  nature, 
and,  seemingly  secure  in  control  of  a  great  natural 
monopoly,  have  evinced  not  only  a  contemptuous  in- 
difference to  the  ordinary  amenities  of  trade  in 
handling  the  raw  material,  but  an  amazing  lack  of 

ij.  A.  Todd,  The  World's  Cotton  Crops:  London,  1915;  pp. 
123-128. 

2  Leading  the  World;  Lancashire's  Cotton  Industry:  London, 
1913;  p.  6. 

344 


ARE  AMERICANS  EFFICIENT?        345 

farsightedness  in  the  matter  of  manufacture  and  the 
consequent  commerce  in  goods.  A  shrewd  nation  of 
money  getters,  it  has  been  said,  they  nevertheless 
permit  Europe  so  far  to  surpass  them  in  the  dex- 
trous manipulation  of  their  natural  monopoly  as  to 
sell  them  back  two  dollars'  worth  of  cotton  goods  for 
every  dollar's  worth  they  ship  abroad.  For  ex- 
ample, the  tables  of  the  thirteenth  census  show  that 
in  1907  the  United  States  exported  27^  million  dol- 
lars' worth  of  cotton  manufactures,  while  importing 
more  than  sixty  millions.  In  1908  the  figures  were 
as  201/2  to  54  millions;  in  1909,  $27,631,899  to  $51,- 
949,866.^  This  commercial  ineptitude,  the  critics 
aver,  becomes  still  more  impressive  when  it  is  noted 
that  in  respect  of  mere  volume,  the  American  ex- 
ports of  manufactured  goods  far  exceeded  the  im- 
ports; in  the  year  last  mentioned,  for  example,  the 
United  States  exported  367,631,542  square  yards  of 
cotton  cloths,  and  imported  only  68,376,608  square 
yards.* 

In  other  words,  as  we  are  told,  the  United  States 
exports  to  all  parts  of  the  world  huge  volumes  of 
very  cheap  and  crude  cotton  products,  for  which  it 
receives  only  enough  to  cancel  about  half  of  its 
European  bill  for  highly  finished  cotton  products, 
although  these  latter  are  in  bulk  less  than  one-fifth 
the  bulk  of  corresponding  American  exports;  and 
yet  Europe  has  been  at  the  immense  disadvantage 
of  hauling  five-eighths  of  its  raw  supply  from 
American  shores,  and  then  hauling  the  manufac- 
tured product  back  to  America  again — we  paying 
ocean  charges  both  ways ! 

8  Report  of  13th  Census,  vol.  x,  p,  62. 
♦  Report  of  13th  Census,  vol.  x,  p.  62. 


346        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

Is  this  the  annual  tribute  paid  by  nervous 
** hustle"  to  patient  training,  the  price  paid  by  com- 
placent inefficiency  to  technical  skill?  One  writer 
has  said,  picturesquely :  * '  There  is  no  logical  reason 
why  it  should  continue  to  be  possible  and  profitable 
for  a  little,  half-frozen  country  on  the  roof  of 
Europe  to  reach  out  to  America,  purchase  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  bales  of  cotton,  and,  after  carrying 
them  across  the  Atlantic,  ship  them  back  to  the 
United  States  in  finished  form  and  in  quantities 
amounting  in  value  to  fifteen  million  dollars  in  a 
year. — Switzerland,  which  grows  no  cotton,  whose 
mountains  yield  no  coal  for  its  factories,  a  country 
that  has  not  an  inch  of  seacoast  or  a  plank  afloat, 
sends  to  us,  in  the  ships  of  other  nations,  more 
finished  cotton  goods  than  we  export  to  all  the 
countries  of  Continental  Europe  combined."^ 

But  there  are  economists  who  dissent  from  this 
violent  indictment  of  American  efficiency.  Instead 
of  agreeing  with  Whelpley  that  ''the  seller  of  staples 
and  raw  materials  is  the  least  intelligent  and  pros- 
perous of  the  world's  traders,"  ®  they  say  that  "the 
staple  branches  alone  seem  to  offer  good  oppor- 
tunities for  the  characteristic  industrial  qualities  of 
the  American  inventor  and  business  man. ' '  '^  Three 
factors,  they  contend,  must  be  carefully  weighed  for 
the  determination  of  American  economic  efficiency  in 
the  cotton  trade :  the  national  facility  in  the  invention 
and  operation  of  automatic  machinery,  especially 
the  automatic  loom ;  the  distinctive  American  genius 
for  industrial  organization  and  management  of  both 

6D.  J.  Sully,  in  the  Cosmopolitan:  New  York;  Feb.,  Mar.,  1909. 

«J.  D.  Whelpley,  The  Trade  of  the  World:  New  York,  1913; 
p.  50. 

t  F.  W.  Taussig,  Some  Aspects  of  the  Tariff  Queation :  Cambridge, 
1915;  p.  295. 


ARE  AMERICANS  EFFICIENT?        347 

men  and  goods  in  the  mass;  and  a  plentiful  supply 
of  cheap  unskilled  labor,  for  spinning,  supplied  in  the 
North  by  an  incessant  stream  of  European  immigra- 
tion® and  in  the  South  by  the  great  movement  of 
** hands"  from  the  field  to  the  factory,  as  already  de- 
scribed. 

The  Northrop  automatic  loom  has  been  brought 
to  such  a  high  pitch  of  perfection  that  a  single 
weaver,  formerly  able  to  attend  to  six  or  eight  ordi- 
nary looms,  can  now  look  after  twenty,  twenty-four, 
or  even  thirty  of  these  highly  automatic  machines.^ 
While  the  operation  of  this  machinery  brings  the 
weaver  high  wages,  the  output  is  a  crude  low-priced 
product,  in  immense  quantities,  in  which  the  Ameri- 
can manufacturer  can  compete  successfully  with  his 
European  rivals  in  their  own  territory,  because  of 
the  * '  comparative  advantage ' '  ^^  derived  from  this 
combination  of  prolific  machinery,  well-paid  labor, 
and  effective  supervision ;  his  yarn  being  meanwhile 
supplied  by  a  constant  influx  of  cheap  labor  which, 
albeit  unskilled,  can  manage  the  ** ring-frames"  so 
extensively  used  in  America  instead  of  the  compli- 
cated "mule"  almost  universally  prevalent  in  Eu- 
rope, and  demanding  skilled  labor/^    * '  Goods  of  the 

8  Andrew  Carnegie  began  life  in  America  at  the  age  of  ten  as  a 
cotton  mill  operative  at  a  wage  of  $1.40  a  week. 
«  Taussig,  as  just  cited,  p.  276. 

10  Taussig,  as  cited,  chs.  iii,  xvii,  xviii.  ("Briefly  stated,  the  doc- 
trine is  that  a  country  tends  under  conditions  of  freedom  to  devote 
its  labor  and  capital  to  those  industries  in  which  they  work  to 
greatest  effect.  It  will  be  found  unprofitable  to  turn  to  industries 
in  which,  though  labor  and  capital  may  be  employed  with  effect, 
they  are  applied  with  less  effect  than  in  the  more  advantageous 
industries.  The  principle  is  simple  enough,  nor  is  it  applicable 
solely  to  international  trade. — The  lawyer  finds  it  advantageous  to 
turn  over  to  his  clerk  that  work  which  he  could  do  as  well  as  the 
clerk,  or  even  better,  confining  himself  to  the  tasks  in  the  pro- 
fession for  which  he  has  by  training  or  inborn  gift  still  greater 
capacity." — p.  30.) 

11  "Ring  spinners  are  always  women  and  children,  who  can  be 


348 


COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 


most  expensive  sort  fail  to  be  made  within  the  United 
States  because  labor  is  applied  to  them  with  less 
machinery,  less  of  labor-saving  devices,  less  ef- 
fective organization, — in  sum,  with  less  advantage 
than  to  the  cheap  and  medium  grades. "  ^^ 

It  is  certainly  not  fair  to  indict  American  effi- 
ciency solely  on  the  ground  of  foreign  trade,  with- 
out taking  into  account  the  manufacture  for  domestic 
consumption.  The  appended  table,  prepared  by 
Copeland,^^  shows  not  only  a  notable  increase  in 
spindleage,  consumption,  and  value  of  product, — 
five-fold  or  more  in  each  instance, — but,  what  is  far 
more  to  the  point  for  the  present  purpose,  only 
a  sluggish  increase  of  imports,  thus  indicating  a 
constantly  augmented  ability  to  supply  the  home 
market,  while  the  export  figures  mentioned  at  the  be- 

U.  S.  Cotton  Manufactures  Since  the  Civil  War 


Year 

No.  of 

Establish- 
ments 

No.   of 
Spindles 
(millions) 

Cotton 

Consumption 

(in   million 

lbs.) 

Persons 

Em- 
ployed 

(thou- 
sands) 

Value  of 
Products 
(million 
dollars) 

Imports 
(million 
dollars) 

1860 

1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1,091 
956 
756 
905 
973 

1,208 

5.2 
7.1 
10.7 
14.2 
19.0 
27.4 

422.7 

398.3 

750.3 

1,118.0 

1,814.0 

2,332.2 

122 
135 
175 
219 

298 
371 

115.7 
177.5 
192.1 
268.0 
332.8 
616.5 

38.2 
23.4 
29.9 
29.9 
41.3 
66.5 

easily  trained  and  easily  replaced." — Taussig,  as  just  cited,  pp.  270- 
271,  272.  Of  the  56,000,000  spindles  in  the  United  Kingdom,  about 
46,000,000  are  mule  spindles;  of  the  30,000,000  spindles  in  the 
U.  S.,  only  about  5,000,000  are  mule  spindles. 

12  Taussig,  p.  362.  Emery  says  of  the  American :  "He  possesses 
neither  the  laborious  patience  of  the  hand-labourer  nor  the  aes- 
thetic sense  of  the  true  artisan;  but  his  practical  sense  finds  full 
scope  in  the  production  of  large  quantities  of  uniform  commodities 
by  quick  machine  methods." — As  cited,  p.  700. 

13  The  Cotton  Manufacturing  Industry  of  the  U.  S. :  Cambridge, 
1912;  p.  17. 


ARE  AMERICANS  EFFICIENT!         349 

ginning  of  this  chapter  dwindle  to  insignificance  in 
the  total  mass  of  American  cotton  manufacture. 

Foreign  trade,  as  may  be  seen,  has  had  but  little 
to  do  with  the  development  of  cotton  manufacture  in 
America,  which  has  looked  chiefly  to  the  supply  of 
the  home  market.  **  A  field  favorable  for  the  talents 
of  the  Yankee,  a  great  population  ready  to  purchase 
staple  goods  by  the  million,  a  labor  supply  adapted 
for  the  utilization  of  quasi-automatic  machines, — 
here  we  have  the  explanation  of  the  progress  made 
in  the  industry. ' '  ^* 

In  spite  of  this  progress,  however,  the  United 
States  ranks  second  among  the  cotton  manufactur- 
ing nations,  the  disparity  between  American  and 
British  spindles  still  being  enormous — 30,579,000  for 
the  United  States,  and  55,576,108  in  Great  Britain, 
out  of  a  world's  total  of  142,000,000.^5  Seventy-five 
per  cent  of  the  British  product  is  for  export,  as 
against  only  five  per  cent  in  America.  There  is 
obviously  a  vast  opportunity  for  increased  manufac- 
ture in  the  United  States  in  connection  with  the  de- 
velopment of  oceanic  trade,  in  those  classes  of  goods 
in  which  America  confessedly  possesses  ''compara- 
tive advantage."  The  present  writer  further  be- 
lieves that  it  is  feasible  and  highly  desirable,  through 
the  introduction  of  technical  education  among  the 
mill  operatives,  to  acquire  gradually  a  facility  in  the 
manufacture  of  those  finer  fabrics  which  now  have 
to  be  brought  from  abroad. 

14  Taussig,  Some  Aspects,  as  cited,  p.  294. 

15  Sir  Charles  Maeara,  as  cited,  pp.  8,  9.  See  Appendix  F:  3b. 
It  is  estimated  that  about  £120,000,000  is  now  invested  in  the 
British  cotton  industrj^,  and  that  the  annual  value  of  its  output  is 
about  £130,000,000.  The  exports  of  cotton  cloths  for  the  year  end- 
ing Aug.  31,  1912,  amounted  to  £91,098,023,  and  of  yarns,  £16,052,876. 
To  the  value  of  the  cloths  exported  must  be  added  18  or  20  per 
cent  for  home  consumption.  The  quantities  for  1912  were:  Cloths, 
6,843,259,600  yards;  yarn,  243,188,700  pounds. 


CHAPTER  71 

SEA   SHUTTLES 

The  importance  of  cotton  as  a  factor  in  interna- 
tional trade  is  constantly  increasing,  and  shows  no 
signs  of  abatement.  A  score  of  years  ago,  when  the 
world 's  cotton  crop  was  about  twelve  and  a  half  mil- 
lion bales  (of  five  hundred  pounds  each),  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Atkinson  estimated  that  in  the  far  future, 
should  the  consumption  for  the  entire  world  come  to 
equal  that  of  the  leading  nations  at  present,  a  crop 
of  42,000,000  bales  might  perhaps  be  demanded ;  ^ 
but  already  one-half  of  Mr.  Atkinson's  possible  ulti- 
mate demand  is  supplied,  and  still  the  world  clamors 
for  more.2 

China  offers  a  striking  case  in  point.  When  the 
witty  Mr.  Wu  Ting  Fang  visited  North  Carolina  in 
1901  he  facetiously  remarked  that  if  every  one  of 
his  countrymen  could  be  induced  to  add  but  one  inch 
to  the  length  of  his  shirt,  it  would  require  at  least 
two  million  bales  of  cotton  to  meet  the  increased  de- 
mand.^    The  Chinese  have  arisen  as  if  in  response 

1  Cited  in  Manufacturers  Record:  Baltimore,  March  27,  1913; 
p.  20. 

2  At  the  International  Congress  of  Master  Cotton  Spinners'  and 
Manufacturers'  Associations  held  at  Brussels  in  1910,  it  was  esti- 
mated that  cotton  now  supplies  nine-tenths  of  the  clothing  of  the 
world's  inhabitants;  that  these  inhabitants  number  1,500,000,000; 
that  of  these,  only  500,000,000  are  completely  clothed,  while  750,- 
000,000  are  but  partially  clothed,  and  250,000,000  are  not  clothed 
at  all.  As  Sir  Charles  Macara  then  remarked,  these  figures  indicate 
the  vastness  of  the  industry  and  the  possibilities  of  its  further 
development. 

3  The  Southern  Manufacturers'  Club  Banquet  to  His  .Excellency, 
Wu  Ting  Fang:     Charlotte,  1901. 

350 


SEA  SHUTTLES  351 

to  this  challenge,  and  demanded  more  clothes! — so 
that  the  consumption  of  the  mills  of  China  has  ex- 
actly doubled  since  the  year  in  which  Mr.  Wu  spoke. 
In  1891  the  first  Chinese  mill  was  erected.  There 
are  now  more  than  thirty,  representing  an  invest- 
ment of  $15,000,000,  and  consuming  400,000  bales  an- 
nually, in  addition  to  an  immense  homespun  in- 
dustry, dating  from  very  ancient  times. 

Other  parts  of  the  Far  East  have  also  greatly  in- 
creased their  consumption  of  cotton,  since  the  year 
of  Mr.  Wu's  speech.  Japan,  for  example,  has  more 
than  quadrupled  its  raw  imports  and  almost  doubled 
its  spindles,  finding  its  chief  market  in  China.  In 
1901  Japan  took  only  45,870  bales  from  the  United 
States,  but  in  1914  (in  spite  of  the  war)  took  353,440. 
India,  however,  supplies  Japan  with  more  than  half 
of  the  raw  material,  and  the  value  of  Indian  cotton 
imported  into  Japan  during  1912  showed  an  increase 
of  $25,000,000  over  that  of  the  year  preceding.* 
The  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  brings  Shanghai 
and  Yokohama  into  as  close  relations  with  the  Gulf 
ports  as  Liverpool  itself,  leading  a  recent  English 
writer  to  the  opinion  that  Japan  will  soon  become  the 
Lancashire  of  the  Far  East,  being  able  to  choose  her 
supplies  from  the  two  leading  markets  of  the  world, 
America  and  India.^ 

In  India  itself,  the  original  home  of  the  cotton 
plant,  a  powerful  movement  has  developed  for  do- 
mestic manufacture,  similar  to  that  of  the  Southern 
States  in  America  versus  New  England, — so  that 
Lancashire  may  not  much  longer  expect  to  import 

*  India  produced  in  1914  the  largest  crop  ever  grown  in  that 
country.     See  Appendix  F:  3a. 

5  Dr.  John  Bates  Clark  tells  the  writer  that  he  expects  the  eastern 
littoral  of  Asia  to  become  the  greatest  cotton  manufacturing  center 
in  the  world. 


352        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

raw  material  from  India  and  send  it  back  to  Bombay 
and  Calcutta  in  piece-goods  at  a  notable  profit.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  India  had  be- 
come the  largest  single  market  for  English  manu- 
factured cotton  goods,  taking  yearly  almost  $100,- 
000,000  worth ;  but  with  an  enthusiasm  equaling  that 
of  the  American  colonists  in  the  eighteenth  century 
(see  page  119),  the  Hindus  are  once  more  becoming 
a  nation  of  spinners  and  weavers,  with  the  result 
that  an  impetus  must  inevitably  and  increasingly  be 
given  to  the  amount  of  per  capita  consumption. 

Mr.  Saint  Nihal  Singh  writes:  ''The  all-con- 
quering character  of  this  enthusiasm  is  best  illus- 
trated by  the  fact  that  many  Indians  to-day  are  pre- 
ferring to  wear  comparatively  coarse  cloth  made  in 
their  own  land,  and  are  even  willing  to  pay  more  for 
it  than  they  would  be  charged  for  finer  fabric  made 
in  Lancashire.  This  sentiment,  known  as  'Swa- 
deshi'— literally  'Own  Country,'  meaning  the  pat- 
ronage of  home  products — is  actually  building  a  sub- 
stitute for  a  high-tariff  wall  to  protect  the  native 
mill  industry — a  rampart  invisible  to  the  eye,  but 
none  the  less  effective. — An  idea  of  the  gigantic 
strides  that  the  Indian  cotton-mill  industry  has 
taken  can  be  formed  by  studying  the  figures  for  the 
last  generation.  In  1880-81  there  were  55  cotton- 
mills,  containing  1,434,364  spindles  and  12,739  looms, 
and  giving  employment  to  46,530  men.  Twenty 
years  later  the  number  of  spindles  and  looms  had 
more  than  trebled.  During  the  next  decade  progress 
was  made  at  a  still  more  prodigious  pace,  and  in 
1909-10  the  number  of  mills  had  grown  to  be  216, 
with  5,773,824  spindles,  74,585  looms,  giving  employ- 
ment to  215,419  persons,  and  producing  593,206,855 
pounds  of  yam  and  215,360,904  pounds  of  cloth. 


SEA  SHUTTLES  353 

During  1911-12  the  Indian  mills  consumed  6,000,000 
hundredweight  out  of  the  14,000,000  hundredweight 
India  had  produced  during  that  year.'*  ^ 

The  development  of  the  Far  East,  however,  stu- 
pendous as  it  is  beginning  to  be,  affords  only  a  par- 
tial explanation  of  the  continually  increasing  de- 
mand for  the  cotton  fiber.  The  doctrine  of  Sartor 
Kesartus,  that  ''society  is  founded  upon  cloth,"  and  / 
that  advancing  civilization  is  largely  a  matter  of 
more  clothes,  gets  striking  illustration  fi-om  the  per 
capita  consumption  of  cotton  within  the  United 
States  itself  during  the  last  forty  years,  as  exhibited 
in  the  following  table: 

1810  1880  1890  1900  1910 

9.46  lbs.    14.74  lbs.    15.96  lbs.    22.57  lbs.    29.53  lbs. 

Mr.  Theodore  Price,  considering  these  figures, 
points  out  that  an  increase  of  only  one  pound  per 
capita  in  the  world's  consumption  means  an  in- 
creased demand  for  more  than  four  million  bales  of 
the  fiber,  and  concludes  that  '*the  specter  which,  for 
the  next  decade,  must  haunt  the  cotton  trade,  is  not 
the  possibility  of  a  surplus,  but  rather  the  proba- 
bility of  a  deficient  supply,  such  as  wrought  disaster 
among  American  manufacturers  in  1910.'^ 

Mr.  Price's  conclusion,  which  would  fairly  seem 
open  to  question,  is  certainly  not  weakened  by  the 
fact  that  American  exports  of  cotton  are  increasing 
at  a  far  greater  rate  than  the  total  volume  of  ex- 
ports, rapid  as  the  total  rate  is.  Between  1900  and 
1912  the  total  exports  mounted  from  $1,394,000,000 
(in  round  numbers)  to  $2,204,000,000,  while  raw  cot- 

6 In  the  London  Magazine;  see  Literary  Digest:  New  York,  May 
24,  1913;  p.  1170. 

'Written  before  the  Great  War  broke  out:  Cotton  and  Finance: 
New  York,  March  9,  1912. 


354        COTTON  AS  A  WOKLD  POWER 

ton  rose  from  $241,832,000  to  $565,849,000.  In  other 
words,  while  the  total  exports  failed  of  doubling  dur- 
ing that  period  by  $584,000,000,  the  cotton  exports 
doubled  and  had  $82,000,000  to  spare. 

The  matter  may  also  be  illustrated  by  reference 
to  the  comparative  increase  of  exports  in  Northern 
ports  such  as  New  York,  on  the  one  hand,  and  South- 
ern ports  such  as  New  Orleans  and  Galveston  on 
the  other ;  cotton  in  the  latter  case  constituting  five- 
sevenths  of  .the  volume  of  exports,  as  against  the 
immense  miscellaneous  export  trade  of  the  North. 
Within  thirty  years  great  changes  have  been  re- 
corded. Instead  of  Atlantic  ports  handling  78  per 
cent  of  the  American  export  trade  and  the  Gulf 
ports  14  per  cent,  the  latter  now  handle  22  per  cent 
and  the  former  only  58  per  cent.  Within  the  last 
decade,  indeed,  Gulf  exports  increased  64  per  cent 
and  those  through  Atlantic  ports  only  20  per  cent; 
and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Gulf  ports 
had  not  yet  felt  the  stimulus  of  the  Panama  Canal 
when  these  figures  were  published,  so  that  this 
marked  relative  increase  is,  apparently,  attributable 
solely  to  the  influence  of  cotton  on  international 
trade.® 

One  of  the  romances  of  modern  history,®  it  has 
been  said,  is  the  story  of  the  discovery  and  develop- 
ment of  the  manifold  uses  of  cottonseed.  For  at 
least  five  thousand  years  cotton  has  been  cultivated 
and  its  fiber  manufactured  into  clothing,  yet  the  seed 
which  the  downy  lint  enfolds  was,  except  for  pur- 
poses of  reproduction,  treated  practically  as  so  much 
waste  until  about  thirty  years  ago.    Not  until  1890 

8  Saturday   Evening   Post,   cited   in    Cotton  and  Finance:    New 
York,  Oct.  26,  1912;  p.  339. 
8  Todd,  as  cited,  p.  3d4. 


SEA  SHUTTLES  355 

was  it  regarded  as  of  suflScient  importance  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  government  reports,  but  in  that  year 
it  was  shown  that  the  Southern  planters  had  just 
sold  1,789,895  tons  of  it,  for  the  sum  of  $16,000,000.i« 
The  writer  well  remembers  his  excitement  and  alarm 
when,  as  a  boy  on  a  Southern  farm  (about  1885),  the 
pet  cow  having  broken  into  an  out-house,  he  discov- 
ered her  greedily  devouring  the  cottonseed  piled  up 
on  the  floor  for  the  next  planting.  The  seed  was 
then  thought  to  be  not  only  useless  for, cattle,  but 
actually  poisonous,  whereas  it  is  now  recognized  as 
one  of  the  best  cattle  feeds  on  the  market;  so  that 
some  enterprising  students  of  Southern  agriculture, 
such  as  Dr.  V.  P.  Clayton  of  Charleston,  have  be- 
lieved that  to  supplement  sheep  grazing  with  this 
native  provender  would  put  the  South  well  forward 
in  wool  as  well  as  in  cotton  production — the  sheep, 
in  addition  to  their  high  value  for  both  wool  and 
mutton,  furnishing  a  valuable  fertilizer.^^ 

The  clearly  demonstrated  uses  of  cottonseed  are 
already  so  multifarious  and  important  as  to  occasion 
an  insistent  world-wide  demand.  From  the  ''cotto- 
lene"  or  **crisco"  at  breakfast  time  to  the  "olive 
oil"  at  dinner,  from  the  "felt"  of  the  early  slipper 
or  from  the  dainty  soap  and  cosmetics  of  the  ladies ' 
dressing  table  to  the  fleece-lined  night-wear,  from  the 

10 A.  Carnegie,  Triumphant  Democracy:     New  York,  1893;  p.  264. 

11  Dr.  Clayton  told  the  writer  that  he  knew  a  South  Carolina 
farmer  who  has  been  feeding  cottonseed  to  sheep  for  over  40  years, 
with  remarkable  success,  during  the  four  or  five  months  when  they 
are  not  turned  out  to  grass — the  despised  Bermuda  grass  affording 
excellent  pasturage.  Clayton  believed  that  the  value  of  the  seed 
as  a  fertilizer  would  be  reduced  by  only  about  10  per  cent  if  fed 
to  the  sheep  and  subsequently  husbanded,  and  that  in  connection 
with  this  fertilizing  value  the  profit  in  mutton  and  wool  would 
double  the  present  value  of  cottonseed  when  sold  at  the  mill.  See 
also  Burkett  and  Poe,  ch.  xxxii,  and  Bulletin  No.  33,  as  cited,  pp. 
385-421. 


356        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

carpet  or  linoleum  to  the  roofing  and  its  varnish, 
from  the  wadding  in  the  mattress  to  the  putty  in  the 
window  panes,  from  the  photographic  film  in  your 
''kodak"  or  the  phonographic  roll  in  your  "dicta- 
phone" to  the  nitro-cellulose  in  French  or  German 
guns — man  lives  not  by  bread  alone,  but  he  lives  and 
trades  and  slays  with  the  new-found  cottonseed,  as 
may  be  learned  from  the  diagram  about  to  follow. 
Thirty  years  ago  it  was  regarded  almost  as  a  nui- 
sance, which  cost  money  to  get  rid  of  unless  it  could 
be  used  as  manure,  and  sometimes  as  fuel.^^  Ten 
years  ago  it  was  a  stock  illustration  of  the  utilization 
of  by-products.  To-day  it  is  an  industry  in  itself, 
with  a  ''turnover"  worth  probably  (the  world  over) 
$250,000,000  a  year,  and  its  finished  products  are  the 
raw  material  of  a  hundred  trades,  from  cattle-rear- 
ing to  soap-making.^^  Todd  cites  it  as  an  especially 
striking  illustration  of  the  world-wide  commerce  gen- 
erated by  the  cotton  plant,  for  there  is  certainly  no 
race  of  people  in  the  world,  he  thinks,  who,  even  if 
they  do  not  wear  cotton  clothes,  fail  to  use  soap  or 
candles  made  from  cottonseed  oil,  or  to  consume  it  in 
some  one  of  its  many  edible  forms.  The  accom- 
panying diagram  is  self-explanatory. 

Back  and  forth  across  the  oceans  the  great  steam 
shuttles  ply,  forever  capitalizing  the  genius  of  Watt 
and  Fulton  and  Whitney,  as  they  weave  "the  warp 
and  the  woof  of  the  world 's  civilization. ' '  Out  from 
the  ports  of  Galveston  and  New  Orleans,  Savannah 
and  Charleston,  Los  Angeles  and  San  Francisco, 

12  "In  many  places  in  the  old  days  cotton  gins  were  purposely 
built  on  streams  in  order  that  the  water  might  carry  away  the  great 
accumulations  of  supposedly  worthless  seeds  and  in  some  States 
laws  were  passed  requiring  ginners  to  clear  away  the  seed,  the  rot- 
ting piles  otherwise  becoming  oflfensive  to  the  neighbors!" — Burkett 
and  Poe,  pp.  275-276. 

13  Todd,  p.  354. 


rLlNTEKS' 


COTTON' 
SEED. 


Hulls  . 


.Meats.  . " 


PRODUCTS  AND  USES  OF  COTTON  SEED* 

Batting. 
Wadding. 

Pads. 

Cushions. 
Stuffing  material  for.  J  Comforts. 

Horse   collars. 

Mattresses. 
^Upholstery. 
Absorbent  cotton. 
Mixing  with  shoddy. 
Mixing  with  wool  in  hat  making. 
Mixing  with  lamb's  wool  for  fleece-lined  underwear. 
Pelt. 

fLaipp  and  candle  wicks. 
Low-grade  yarns ...  J  Twine. 
Rope. 
LCarpets. 

f  Smokeless   powder. 
J  Writing  paper. t  I  i 

Cellulose -^  Guncotton,  nitro  cellulose,  -I  f  Varnishes. 

.  L     or  pjrocellulose. 

FSiUzer.  Lpyroxylin.. 

Fuel.t 

Packing  [Plastics. 

Household    utensils. 
Bran — Cattle  feed. 

fStuffing  for  horse  collars. 

^Fiber    J  Basis  for  explosives. 

I  Cellulose — Used  same  as  under  Linters. 
(.Paper  stock — Pressed  paper  products. 
Fertilizer. 
Dyestuffs. 

r  Cattle. 
Poultry.t 

Feed  for <  Horses  and  mules. 

Swine. t 
I  Sheep. 


rCoating  for  metals. 

.Vrtificial  leather. 
L  Waterproofing 

[•  Celluloid. 
I  Collodion. 

Varnishes. 

Artificial  silk. 
^Photographic  films. 


'Cake  axd 

MEAL. 


fBread. 

L Flour  t -{  Cake. 

LCracker. 


Crude  oil 


Refined- 
oil. 


Prime   summer' 
yellow  oil. 


rCosmetics. 

Bleached  or   f  Animal  compound  lard, 
d  e  o  d  o  r-  -|   Cooking  oil. 
ized  oil.       L  Salad  oil. 

Hydr  o  g  e  n-  J  Lard  substitutes. 

ated  oil.       1  Synthetic  stearin — Vegetable-compound  lard. 
r  Salad  oil 
,x,..    .         .,      J  Setting  olives. 
Cold  pressed r^""^"'  "''•  "  1  Pf.^'^mg  sardines. 
Qil  1  c        •  L  Winter  white  oil. 

'^Stearin — Oleomargarin. 

Emulsion  for  medical  purposes. 
Substitute   for  sweet  oil. 
,  Deodorized   oil. 


fSoap. 
OflF-grade     s  u  m-J  Miners'    oil. 
mer  yellow  oil.   LHydrogenated 


oil — Synthetic    stearin — Soap. 


Putty. 


Foots . 


Washing 
powder. 

Acidulated 
foots  or  black 
grease. 

,Soap. 


Glycerin — Nitroglycerin. 


.Fat  acids  ^ 


Candle  pitch.  ^Stearic    acid — Candles. 
Washing  powder. 
Soap. 


I  Distilled    fat* 
acids. 


Stearin  pitch  or  cotton 
oil  pitch. 


[Soap. 
loieicacid^Wa^«„hmg^ 

I  Fulling  ware 


'Roofing  J  Composition 

tar.      ]       roofing. 
Linoleums. 
Insulating  materials. 
</  Oilcloth. 
Waterproofing. 
Cheap-paint  base. 
Cotton  rubber. 
Artificial  (  Upholstering, 
leather.  (  Bookbinding. 


From  Bulletin  No.  131,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Commerce:      Washington,  1915. 
■  Possible  uses  to  which  small  quantities  only  are  devoted. 


SEA  SHUTTLES  357 

laden  down  to  the  water  line  with  the  world's  raiment 
riches,  these  steamers  sail  in  the  summer  and  autumn 
of  normal  peaceful  years; — ^the  largest  group  to 
the  United  Kingdom,  supplying  the  great  mills  of 
Lancashire  and  other  factory  towns  with  three  and  a 
half  million  bales  annually ;  another  fleet  to  the  river 
ports  of  Hamburg  and  Bremen,  beyond  the  German 
Ocean,  bearing  provender  for  the  hungry  factories 
of  Chemnitz  and  Miilhausen,  about  two  and  a  half 
million  bales  every  year;  another  fleet  to  Russia, 
with  a  hundred  thousand  bales,  a  larger  one  to 
France,  with  more  than  a  million ;  still  other  fleets  to 
Austria,  with  a  hundred  thousand  bales,  to  Italy, 
with  half  a  million,  to  Switzerland  and  Belgium, 
Portugal  and  Holland,  Denmark  and  Norway,  to 
South  America,  to  Japan  and  to  China — ^wherever 
men  have  learned  or  are  learning  the  use  of  ma- 
chinery, these  cotton  shuttles  ply  with  their  burdens. 
Back  across  the  oceans  flows  a  thin  white  stream  of 
paper,  pledging  the  world's  credit  in  payment;  back 
even  flows  a  steady  stream  of  gold,  five  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  every  autumn,  when  the  crop  has  been 
moved — thus  easing  the  tension  of  credit  in  the 
South,  paying  debts  and  filling  the  vaults  of  the  sav- 
ings banks,  brightening  a  million  homes  of  planters 
and  ''factors"  and  bankers,  and  establishing  a  na- 
tional balance  of  trade. 

Then,  when  in  manifold  far-scattered  foreign  fac- 
tories this  fleece  has  been  unpacked  and  carded  and 
spun  and  woven  and  bleached  and  printed  and  again 
packeted,  it  starts  once  more  on  globe-girdling  jour- 
neys. ''From  the  factories  of  Europe  and  Japan 
countless  ships  carry  increasing  cargoes  of  cotton 
fabrics  to  every  civilized  port.  Goods  woven  of  this 
staple  constitute  a  vast  proportion  of  the  merchan- 


358        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

dise  hauled  by  train  across  all  continents,  and  where 
modem  methods  of  transportation  pause,  primitive 
and  picturesque  carriers  take  up  the  burden  of  the 
world's  cotton  output  and  trudge  with  these  goods  to 
eager  customers  along  the  most  remote  frontiers. 
Cotton  cloth  paves  the  way  for  Christianity  in  the 
jungles  of  the  Dark  Continent ;  to  the  savages  of  the 
Congo  cotton  cloth  is  more  precious  than  ivory  or 
gold.  Under  the  midnight  sun  arctic  dogs  drag  sleds 
laden  with  cotton  goods.  The  condor  and  the  eagle 
look  down  wonderingly  upon  pack-trains  carrying 
the  product  of  European  cotton-mills  across  the 
Andes.  The  yak  goes  burdened  with  cotton  goods 
into  Tibet.  Godowns  along  Chinese  streams  are 
stored  with  cotton  goods  awaiting  shipment,  and  to 
the  upper  reaches  of  the  Yang-tse  and  Hoang-ho  the 
native  Chinese  trader  on  his  junk  carries  cotton 
cloths  and  garments  to  interior  tribes.  Burros  laden 
with  cotton  goods  from  England  and  Germany  pick 
their  way  across  the  mountains  of  Mexico.  The  ele- 
phants of  India  and  the  camels  of  the  Levant  and 
Egypt  carry  cotton  goods."  ^^  Thus  the  lands  are 
bound  together  in  a  world-encircling  web.  As  Pro- 
fessor Todd  says,  there  is  nothing  that  can  happen, 
from  a  revolution  in  China  to  a  bad  monsoon  in 
India,  the  cutting  of  a  canal  or  the  building  of  a  rail- 
way, which  is  not  certain  to  affect  cotton  in  many 
ways.^* 

iBD.  J.  Sully  in  the  GosmopoKtan :    New  York,  March,  1909. 

16  J.  A.  Todd,  The  World's  Cotton  Crops:     London,  1915;  p.  365. 


CHAPTER  72 

WHEN   WAB  BREAKS 

The  lines  of  the  telegraph  are  scarcely  more 
quickly  responsive  than  the  skeins  of  this  web  when 
the  ** mailed  fist"  strikes.  Instantly  upon  the  decla- 
ration of  war  the  cotton  market  drops,  like  a  semi- 
tropical  thermometer  suddenly  stricken  with  ab- 
normal frosts,  and  brokers,  like  fruit-growers,  tumble 
into  bankruptcy.  Wheat,  on  the  other  hand,  rises; 
to  fall  back  towards  normal  a  little  later,  while  the 
cotton  market  slowly  climbs  up  again,  although  it 
continues  to  fluctuate. 

The  explanation  of  the  first  swift  movement  in 
prices  is  simple,  and  may  be  given  in  the  parable  of 
the  humorous  negro  who  was  quizzed  by  a  stranger 
because  his  body,  while  sleek  and  fat,  was  draped  in 
rags; 

**Ma  back  will  stan'  fo'  credit.  Boss,  but  ma 
stomach  call'  fo'  cash!" 

The  first  thought  of  the  world,  when  its  delicate 
commercial  net-work  is  suddenly  torn  like  a  spider's 
web  by  the  rough  hand  of  war,  is  for  food;  a  little 
later  it  realizes  that  it  must  also  be  clothed.  Even 
the  shortage  resulting  from  suspension  of  mills  must 
sooner  or  later  be  rectified,  so  that,  while  the  world- 
wide ramification  of  an  annual  cotton  supply  may  be 
rudely  disturbed  and  very  seriously  retarded,  it  must 
ultimately  go  forward  again.  Meanwhile,  distress 
afflicts  every  member  of  the  '* economic  entity"  (see 

359 


360        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEE 

page  4),  whether  on  plantation  or  in  the  stock  ex- 
change or  at  the  factory. 

The  commercial  interdependence  of  nations  was 
illustrated  in  a  manner  never  to  be  forgot  when  the 
Great  War  of  1914  broke  out.  Austria  declared  war 
against  Servia  on  Tuesday,  July  28.  Within  three 
days  the  cotton  trade  throughout  the  world  was  in  a 
state  of  collapse.  The  first  thing  that  brought  the 
trouble  home  to  those  not  directly  interested  in  the 
trade  was  the  sudden  closing  on  Friday,  July  31,  of 
the  Cotton  Exchanges,  particularly  in  Liverpool, 
New  York,  and  New  Orleans.  The  striking  point  to 
be  noted  here  is  the  fact  that  this  wds  before  the 
actual  declaration  of  war  between  any  of  the  Great 
Powers.  When  the  declaration  of  war  between  Eng- 
land and  Germany  actually  occurred  on  Tuesday, 
August  4,  shipping  practically  came  to  a  standstill, 
and,  for  a  time,  all  export  trade  ceased.^  The  ef- 
fect in  the  United  States  was  cataclysmic.  An 
American  statistician,  Eoger  W.  Babson,  shortly 
afterwards  showed  that  in  spite  of  the  most  bounti- 
ful crops  in  the  history  of  the  country,^  and  the 
largest  amount  of  money  in  circulation  that  statistics 
had  ever  recorded,  bank  clearings  dropped  to  a 
dangerous  ebb,  stocks  and  bonds  were  selling  at 
abnormally  low  prices,  the  largest  number  of  unem- 
ployed men  were  roaming  the  streets  since  the  panic 

iTodd,  as  cited,  pp.  370-373. 

2  The  values  of  the  principal  farm  crops  this  year  were :  Corn, 
$1,702,599,000;  wheat,  $878,680,000;  hay,  $779,068,000;  cotton, 
$519,616,000;  oats,  $499,431,000;  potatoes,  $198,609,000;  barley, 
$105,903,000;  tobacco,  $101,411,000.  The  United  States  occupies 
only  about  one-sixteenth  of  the  globe  and  has  only  about  one-fifteenth 
of  its  population,  yet  it  produces  73  per  cent  of  the  world's  cotton, 
68  per  cent  of  the  world's  corn,  63  per  cent  of  the  world's  petro- 
leum, 65  per  cent  of  its  copper,  42  per  cent  of  its  iron  ore,  40  per 
cent  of  its  coal,  35  per  cent  of  its  tobacco,  30  per  cent  of  its  lead, 
silver  and  live  stock,  and  20  per  cent  of  its  gold,  wheat,  and  timber. 


WHEN  WAR  BEEAKS  361 

of  1907,  mills  were  shutting  down,  and,  in  fact,  **  most 
of  the  twelve  million  people  of  this  country  depend- 
ent upon  export  trade  are  suffering  from  the  world's 
failure  to  recognize  the  brotherhood  of  man."  Not 
even  in  the  Civil  War  were  American  stock  ex- 
changes compelled  to  close  for  a  single  hour ;  but  the 
shattering  of  international  relationships  caused  by 
the  Great  War  locked  their  doors  for  months. 
**With  the  differences  in  the  climate  and  resources 
of  the  nations  of  the  world,  we  must  recognize  that 
our  prosperity  is  interlocked.  Neither  this  country 
nor  any  other  that  is  now  neutral  can  enjoy  to  the 
fullest  the  blessings  of  peace  until  all  the  nations 
are  bound  together  in  some  form  of  alliance,  based, 
not  upon  a  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  on  a 
Declaration  of  Interdependence. ' '  ^ 

Even  in  times  of  peace,  the  annual  cotton  crop  is 
so  huge  that  apparently  insignificant  fluctuations, 
perhaps  caused  by  some  slight  disturbance  in  a  rer 
mote  far-away  skein  of  this  sensitive  world-web,  may 
upset  the  economic  equilibrium  of  all  civilized  lands. 
A  rise  or  fall  of  only  one  cent  a  pound  represents  a 
difference  in  assets  of  $100,000,000.  The  difference 
in  the  American  crops  for  1900  and  1912  was  $540,- 
000,000,  a  sum  which  exceeds  the  average  value  of 
the  world's  annual  output  of  gold  and  silver  com- 
bined for  the  same  twelve  years.  If  we  shift  the 
ground  of  illustration  to  Egypt,  we  find,  according 
to  the  Financial  Adviser  to  the  Khedive,  that  the 
value  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  crop  rose  steadily 
from  $80,000,000  in  1901  to  $122,500,000  in  1906;  in 
1907  and  1908  it  leaped  to  $150,000,000,  fell  to  $120,- 
000,000  in  1909,  jumped  again  to  $180,000,000  in  1911, 
and  stood  once  more  at  $150,000,000  in  1912.    As  Mr. 

3  Editorial  article  in  the  Los  Angeles  Times,  Jan.  10,  1915. 


<>/^v 


362    COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

John  Wormald  of  Manchester  says,  **  These  figures 
represent  enormous  differences  in  balance,  and  fully 
demonstrate  that  cotton  has  a  vitally  important  bear- 
ing on  the  incidence  of  international  finance."* 

The  reader  is  now  in  position  to  judge  of  the  effect 
on  American  finance  produced  by  the  outbreak  of 
the  Great  War  of  Europe  in  respect  of  cotton  alone, 
as  indicated  by  the  following  startling  contrast  in 
raw  cotton  exports  for  the  years  1913  and  1914,  dur- 
ing the  month  of  August :  ^ 

191S  19U 

To  the  United  Kingdom.  77,488  bales  6,370 

To  Germany    72,928     "  52 

To  France  52,933     "  5 

All  other  countries 53,823     "  14,783 

Total  257,172  21,210 

September,  however,  is  a  heavier  export  month 
than  August.  In  1913  the  United  Kingdom  took 
376,426  bales,  but  in  1914  only  50,980 ;  while  Germany 
and  France  got  absolutely  none  in  1914,  as  against 
290,805  bales  and  131,950  bales  respectively  in  1913. 
October  is  a  still  heavier  month.  Great  Britain  had 
by  this  time  in  1914  reorganized  her  shipping  ar- 
rangements so  as  to  take  232,065  bales,  or  somewhat 
less  than  half  as  many  as  in  the  year  before,  while 
France  succeeded  in  landing  22,302  bales,  and  Ger- 
many still  got  none  as  against  465,525  bales  in  the 
October  of  1913.  In  November  Germany  managed 
to  secure  a  hundred  bales,  and  in  the  last  month  of 
the  year  took  47,076  bales,  making  a  total  of  48,128 
bales  for  the  first  five  months  of  the  war  as  against 

*The  Sprinkler  Bulletin:    Manchester,  June,  1913;  pp.  702-703. 
8  Department  of  Commerce  Reports. 


WHEN  WAR  BREAKS  363 

1,673,049  bales  for  the  same  period  of  the  year  pre- 
ceding. Great  Britain,  however,  brought  her  De- 
cember, 1914,  purchases  up  to  an  excess  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  bales  over  the  same  month  in  the  pre- 
vious year,  and  had  almost  exactly  reestablished  a 
balance  for  the  five  months'  period,  while  at  the 
same  time  resorting  to  the  most  strenuous  measures 
to  prevent  further  shipments  to  Germany.  The  re- 
sult of  this  commercial  phase  of  the  war  for  the  first 
half  of  the  year  1915  (as  compared  with  1914)  may 
be  tabulated  as  follows : 

United  Kingdom  Germany 

January    1914 437,231  308,116 

1915 585,534  99,913 

February  1914 328,794  212,599 

1915 2,414,619  88,508 

March        1914 264,999  219,948 

1915 440,490  6,112 

April         1914 147,298  118,198 

1915 378,828  None 

May           1914 140,618  132,123 

1915 359,675  None 

June          1914 121,726  80,639 

1915 118,890  None 

While  Germany,  in  spite  of  these  figures,  was  able 
for  a  while  to  obtain  some  cotton  by  way  of  Scan- 
dinavia, that  channel  was  subsequently  closed ;  and  a 
competent  German  trade  expert  gave  it  as  his  opin- 
ion that  during  June,  1915,  "not  a  gramme  of  cot- 
ton had  found  its  way  into  Germany."  A  govern- 
ment order  was  therefore  issued  July  1,  to  take  ef- 
fect August  1,  which  was  equivalent,  according  to 
the  German  trade  journal  for  the  clothing  industry, 
to  **the  total  stoppage  of  the  German  cotton  in- 
dustry, except  in  so  far  as  it  is  engaged  in  the  pro- 


364        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

duction  of  military  supplies  or  of  certain  special- 
ties."« 

As  this  book  goes  through  the  press  the  follow- 
ing figures  are  available  for  the  year  ending 
July  31,  1916,  as  compared  with  the  preceding 
year: 

Country  to  which  exported  Year^ending  July^Sl 

United  Kingdom 2,852,306  3,771,646 

Germany    None  242,661 

France 918,272  682,630 

Italy 788,905  1,109,541 

All  other  countries 1,644,705  2,738,085 

Total  Bales 6,204,188        8,544,563 

The  importance  that  England  attaches  to  the  con- 
trol of  cotton  supplies  during  war  time  is  shown  by 
the  lengths  to  which  the  Government  seemed  willing 
to  go  in  support  of  a  ** mid-ocean  blockade."  That 
such  figures  as  those  just  tabulated  necessarily  have 
an  important  bearing  on  the  course  and  outcome  of 
war  must  be  obvious  to  the  most  casual  observer. 

The  fact  is,  cotton  has  now  come  to  be  in  itself  an 
essential  to  warfare,  to  a  degree  that  few  people 
suspect.  Apart  from  the  clothing  needs  of  civilians, 
the  standing  armies  and  navies  of  the  world  con- 
sume annually,  even  in  times  of  peace,  between 
175,000  and  200,000  bales  in  fatigue  uniforms  alone. 
Their  demand  is  of  course  greatly  augmented  by  the 
wear  and  tear  of  active  campaigns,  the  *'life"  of  the 
average  field  uniform  being  only  three  months. 
Wool  has  been  largely  displaced  by  its  vegetable 
rival,  even  in  overcoats;  the  service  overcoats  of 
private  soldiers  in  the  cold  countries  of  Northern 

«  W.  J.  Ashley  on  "Germany  and  Cotton,"  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly: 
Boston,  January,  1916,  pp.  119-120. 


WHEN  WAE  BREAKS  365 

Europe  being  now  made  of  cotton  duck  lined  with 
fleece.  In  1904,  when  Japan  and  Russia  were  fight- 
ing, manufacturers  found  the  demand  for  duck  the 
one  buoyant  feature  of  a  trade  temporarily  par- 
alyzed by  the  wild  speculation  of  the  notorious 
"Sully  year."  Duck  is  needed  not  only  for  cloth- 
ing, but  for  tents  and  tarpaulins,  in  enormous  quan- 
tities."^ 

Gun-cotton  has,  during  recent  years,  been  devel- 
oped into  far  the  most  important  form  of  propulsive, 
ammunition;  consisting  simply  in  nitrated  cellulose, 
cellulose  itself  subsisting,  in  an  almost  pure  form, 
under  the  guise  of  cotton  wool,  which,  when  nitrated, 
becomes  susceptible  of  enormous  explosive  effective- 
ness if  detonated  by  fulminate  of  mercury.  While 
cellulose,  the  chief  constituent  of  wood,  is  of  course 
the  common  property  of  many  substances,  other 
forms  of  it  have  hitherto  been  found  unsuited  to  the 
proper  manufacture  of  gun-cotton  for  use  in  the 
heavier  artillery,  cotton  itself  being  regarded  as  the 
basic  requisite.^.  Sir  William  Ramsay,  the  British 
chemist,  in  an  effort  to  spur  his  tardy  government  to 
declare  cotton  contraband  of  war,  wrote  for  the  Eng- 
lish Review  of  May,  1915,  a  clear  and  vigorous  exposi- 

7  C.  T.  Revere,  "War's  EflFect  on  Cotton  Prices,"  in  Cotton  and 
Finance:     New  York,  Nov.  2,  1912;  p.  48. 

8  The  ingenuity  of  chemists,  even  before  the  war,  had  succeeded 
in  producing  a  nitro-cellulose  out  of  wood-pulp,  though  it  had 
never  actually  been  used  in  heavy  guns.  But  as  a  propellent  it  is 
weaker;  and  this  means  that  its  use  would  necessitate  new  firing 
chambers  and  new  sighting  in  all  existing  guns.  Rifles  might  pos- 
sibly be  altered  with  field  appliances;  heavier  guns  would  have  to 
go  to  a  workshop.  There  are  rumors  that  propellents  are  now 
being  made  in  Germany  from  wood  pulp;  and  it  is  even  said  that 
the  Krupps  have  begun  to  make  suitable  guns.  But  conceive  of 
the  difficulty  of  shifting  from  one  propellent  to  another  in  the 
midst  of  war,  and  the  complications  resulting  from  the  simultaneous 
use  of  non-interchangeable  ammunition. — W.  J.  Ashley,  as  cited, 
p.  117. 


866        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

tion  of  the  uses  of  cotton  on  the  firing  line.^  He  com- 
puted, for  example,  that  for  rifle  ammunition  alone 
the  German  army  consumes  an  average  of  fifty-one 
tons  a  day,  or  18,600  tons  a  year,  while  their  machine 
guns  require  at  least  an  equal  amount,  and  the  lighter 
ordnance  more  than  three  times  as  much — ^making 
an  annual  total  consumption  by  this  one  army  of  not 
less  than  a  hundred  thousand  tons,  or  400,000  bales, 
American  weight,  for  ammunition  purposes  only. 
Considering  all  classes  of  ordnance,  it  is  computed 
that  on  the  average  a  bale  of  cotton  is  consumed  to 
every  150  shots,  and  that  every  company  of  300  sol- 
diers carries  three  bales  of  cotton  in  the  shape  of 
cartridges/"  As  for  the  navy,  it  is  said  that  a 
twelve-inch  gun  consumes  three  hundred  pounds  of 
ammunition,  or  about  half  a  bale  of  the  cotton  from 
which  this  is  made,  with  every  discharge;  so  that  a 
battle-ship,  firing  at  its  greatest  capacity,  might  use 
five  thousand  to  six  thousand  pounds  of  powder,  or 
from  ten  to  twelve  bales  of  cotton,  every  minute  dur- 
ing an  action ! 

While  it  thus  becomes  apparent  that  active  war- 
fare creates  a  specific  and  peculiar  demand  for  cot- 
ton unknown  in  times  of  peace,  when  waste  or  re- 
jected lint  is  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  mili- 
tary practise  and  of  the  sporting  world  for  powder, 
it  is  nevertheless  perfectly  obvious  that  the  total 
general  effect  of  war  is  to  disturb  cotton  values,  in- 
flicting distress  on  the  planter ;  whose  chief  danger, 
however,  it  should  be  distinctly  remembered,  arises 
not  so  much  from  war  itself  as  from  the  augmented 
demand  almost  certain  to  occur  with  its  sudden  ces- 

9  On  Aug.  20,  1915,  the  British  Government  by  an  order-in-council 
added  raw  cotton,  cotton  linters,  cotton  waste  and  cotton  yarns  to 
the  list  of  absolute  contraband. 

10  American  Year  Book:     New  York,  1916;  p.  612. 


WHEN  WAR  BEEAKS  367 

sation,  an  effect  due  to  the  accelerated  resumption 
of  foreign  manufacture  for  tlie  replenishment  of 
long  depleted  supplies,  and  thus  luring  the  unwary 
planter  once  more  to  a  delirium  of  over-production 
and  to  the  sacrifice  of  his  unromantic  life-boats  of 
food-crops  on  the  Lorelei  rock  of  this  ** money 
crop. ' ' 

Early  in  the  course  of  the  Great  War  (1914)  the 
United  States  Government  adopted  wise  and  ener- 
getic methods  for  relief  of  the  nation-wide  stringency 
caused  by  the  sudden  check  to  this  money  crop,  which 
was  precisely  ready  for  movement,  and  more  espe- 
cially for  relief  of  Southern  farmers  whose  whole 
year's  living  was  at  stake.  Prices  had  dropped,  im- 
mediately after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  to  the 
lowest  ebb  ever  touched  since  railway  and  telegraph 
lines  have  provided  broad  markets  for  the  most  gen- 
erally used  single  commodity  in  all  the  world.  The 
Government  promptly  utilized  its  banking  system  to 
afford  measurable  relief,  by  accepting  notes  on  ware- 
housed cotton  at  75  per  cent  of  their  face  value,  on 
the  basis  of  eight  cents  a  pound ;  a  procedure  which 
could  hardly  have  been  justified  except  for  the  fact, 
pointed  out  at  a  conference  called  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  that  cotton  does  not  deteri- 
orate when  properly  warehoused,  being  as  good 
twenty  years  after  it  is  picked  as  when  it  is  first 
gathered,  so  that  '*it  can  therefore  be  carried  over 
until  the  restoration  of  normal  business  conditions 
enables  the  world's  consumption  to  absorb  it." 

Aided  by  these  measures,  and  also,  to  a  less  de- 
gree, by  the  **Buy  a  bale"  popular  movement, 
planters  exercised  such  wise  deliberation  in  market- 
ing the  crop  that  prices  soon  rallied  and  steadied  a 
little,  while  by  the  month  of  February,  1915,  the 


368        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

American  factory  consumption  of  cotton  had  re- 
turned to  normal  proportions.  A  year  later,  the 
Hon.  John  Sharp  Williams  of  Mississippi  said  in 
the  Senate: 

''Cotton  is  worth  12.38  cents  a  pound  spot  in  the 
Memphis  market.  If  peace  came  to-morrow,  cotton 
would  not  be  worth  over  ten  cents  a  pound.  What- 
ever else  this  war  has  done,  it  has  not  lowered  the 
price  of  cotton.  For  the  first  four  or  six  months  of 
the  war,  the  war  did  lower  the  price  because  it  dislo- 
cated the  entire  financial  and  trade  exchange  sys- 
tems. But  at  present  what  is  becoming  of  the  cot- 
ton crop  1 

"Why,  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Italy  and  their 
dependencies  in  normal  times  take  73  per  cent  of 
our  entire  cotton  exports,  and  73  per  cent  is  going  to 
them  now.  More  than  that  is  going  to  them,  for  the 
neutral  countries  are  not  only  getting  their  share, 
but  a  little  bit  more,  so  that  it  is  about  83  per  cent 
that  is  not  interfered  with. ' '  ^^ 

The  Great  War  has  probably  brought  permanent 
good  to  the  South.  The  warehouses  erected  to  meet 
the  emergency  have  a  storage  capacity  suflScient  to 
house  the  largest  crop,  allowing  for  the  natural  ex- 
port movement  of  cotton  during  the  period  of  har- 
vesting. ^^  These  will  be  retained  and  improved,  so 
that  planters  may  have  permanent  weatherproof 
means  for  holding  back  their  product  from  the  mar- 
ket when  prices  are  temporarily  deflated  by  specu- 
lators. Not  only  so,  but  the  farmers  seem  for  the 
first  time  to  have  grasped  firmly,  as  a  result  of  the 
lessons  taught  by  the  War,  the  importance  of  diversi- 
fication.   "Never   again,"   says  a  hopeful  writer, 

"New  York  Times,  Jan.  21,  1916;  p.  2. 

ii Bulletin  No.  ISl,  Dept.  of  Commerce:  Washington,  1915;  p.  72. 


WHEN  WAR  BREAKS  369 

"will  the  South  put  all  its  eggs  into  one  basket." 
A  visit  by  the  present  writer  at  the  close  of  1915, 
after  an  absence  of  seven  years,  produced  on  his 
mind  an  irresistible  impression  of  greatly  improved 
conditions.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  people  of  the 
South  had  produced  during  that  year  more  wealth 
than  in  any  other  year  of  their  history,  and  from 
diversified  crops:  "less  cotton,  but  more  money  for 
it  than  ever  before ;  hay,  corn,  oats,  hogs,  piled  high 
on  the  credit  side  of  the  ledger."  ^^ 

If  indeed  the  South  has  truly  learned  its  lesson, 
the  ill  wind  will  have  blown  it  great  good. 

13  F.  M.  Davenport  on  "The  Southern  Renaissance,"  in  the  Out- 
look: New  York,  Feb.  23,  1916;  p.  428. 


CHAPTER  73 

BRITISH   PEOSPECTS  IN   EGYPT 

Great  Britain,  with  rueful  recollection  of  the  Cot- 
ton Famine  that  resulted  from  the  American  Civil 
War  and  endangered  her  paramount  industry,  has 
made  many  efforts  to  develop  cotton  areas  in  her 
huge  colonial  possessions  throughout  the  world. 
Perhaps  the  most  impressive  tribute  ever  paid  to 
the  American  Cotton  Belt  is  that  contained  in  the  re- 
port of  a  British  commission  which  once  investi- 
gated the  cotton-growing  possibilities  of  East 
Africa.  **A11  efforts  to  raise  cotton  successfully 
elsewhere  than  in  the  Southern  part  of  the  United 
States  have  failed,"  the  report  confesses.  "This  is 
the  home  of  the  cotton  plant,  and  if  it  will  grow  and 
fruit  elsewhere  to  the  extent  that  the  staple  have  a 
substantial  commercial  value,  the  fact  is  yet  to  be 
demonstrated.  It  was  experimented  with  under  dif- 
ferent suns  during  and  after  the  American  Civil 
War,  and  all  the  experiments  failed.  Providence 
has  given  the  Southern  farmer  a  monopoly  of  the 
indispensable  cotton  crop,  and  he  need  not  take 
fright  when  the  price  soars  and  there  are  heard 
threats  of  turning  Africa,  Egypt  or  other  countries 
into  cotton  fields  and  making  them  furnish  the 
world's  supply."  ^ 

In  1902,  however,  the  British  Cotton  Growing  As- 
sociation was  formed,  with  the  strong-hearted  pur- 

1  Cited  by  Burkett  and  Poe,  p.  34. 

370 


BEITISH  PROSPECTS  IN  EGYPT       371 

pose  of  "establishing  and  extending  the  growth  of 
cotton  in  the  British  Empire,"  so  as  to  relieve  Lan- 
cashire from  its  dangerous  dependence  on  the  United 
States  for  raw  material.^  Undismayed  by  the  nega- 
tive reports  of  obsolete  government  commissions, 
this  Association  set  about  the  actual  cultivation  of 
cotton  in  India,  Uganda  and  Nyassaland,  West 
Africa,  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan,  and  in  the  West 
Indies, — ^with  the  result  that  it  now  has  a  capital  of 
$2,500,000,  and  $1,500,000  invested  in  the  practical 
cultivation  of  new  fields,  some  of  which  are  very 
promising. 

Production  in  Uganda,  for  example,  has  increased 
from  500  bales  in  1906  to  29,000  bales  in  1912,  with 
the  prospect  of  40,000  bales  for  the  crop  next  due. 
*  *  The  quality  is  rather  better  than  Texas  and  fetches 
from  1/^  d.  to  1^2  d.  per  pound  over  Middling  Ameri- 
can." It  is  claimed  that  Lagos  cotton  is  to-day  the 
most  regular  and  even  in  quality  of  any  cotton  pro- 
duced in  any  part  of  the  world.  Nyassaland,  en- 
tered by  the  Association  so  recently  as  1910,  gave 
two  years  later  a  crop  of  6,800  bales,  worth  from  1  d. 
to  2^  d.  over  Middling  American.  Altogether,  the 
Association  has  developed  new  fields  so  as  to  pro- 
duce 360,640  bales,  with  a  value  of  almost  $26,- 
000,000,  during  the  twelve  years  of  its  labors. 

Naturally,  the  Association  is  deeply  interested  in 
Egypt,  not  only  because  the  rich  Valley  of  the  Nile 
has  recently  become  a  British  possession,  but  because 
chiefly  of  the  extraordinary  value  of  the  far-famed 

2  The  King  said  in  his  speech  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  in 
1904:  "The  insufficiency  of  the  raw  material  upon  which  the  cot- 
ton industry  of  this  country  depends  has  inspired  me  with  great 
concern.  I  trust  that  the  efforts  which  are  being  made  in  the 
various  parts  of  my  Empire  to  increase  the  area  imder  cultivation 
may  be  attended  with  a  large  measure  of  success." — ^Todd,  p.  161. 


372        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

Egyptian  cotton,  which,  next  to  the  sea-island  vari- 
ety, is  probably  the  finest  in  the  world.  Napoleon 
Bonaparte's  great  ''Description  de  I'Egypte"  shows 
that  at  the  time  of  his  invasion  two  different  species 
of  cotton  were  grown  there.  One  of  these  was  a 
short-staple  Asiatic  variety,  of  former  commercial 
value,  which  has  now  disappeared ;  the  other,  a  tree- 
cotton  of  Upper  Egypt,  probably  identical  with  that 
of  which  Professor  Alpino  had  furnished  the  first 
botanical  record,  about  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  it  was  used  as  an  ornamental  shrub. 
At  the  suggestion  of  M.  Jumel,  a  Franco-Swiss 
engineer,  this  plant  was  taken  from  a  garden  in 
Cairo,  under  a  system  of  state  control  favored  by 
Mohammed  Ali,  founder  of  the  Khedivate,  and  prop- 
agated with  such  success  (from  the  year  1820)  that 
it  soon  displaced  the  short-staple  Asiatic  type,  as  the 
brown,  strong  lint,  readily  ginned  from  the  almost 
naked  seed,  quickly  made  its  reputation  with  the 
spinners,  and  this  type  of  lint  has  been  typical  of 
the  Egyptian  product  ever  since.^  It  is  especially 
adapted  for  thread,  fine  yarns,  fine  underwear  and 
hosiery,  and  for  goods  requiring  smooth  finish  and 
high  luster.  It  can  also  be  used  for  the  manufacture 
of  sewing  thread  and  other  articles  which  need  to  be 
exceptionally  strong,  and  for  which  long-fiber  cot- 
ton is  required.  It  takes  dyes  unusually  well,  the 
Mit  Afifi  variety,  indeed,  giving  the  ecru  shade  to 
such  goods  as  lace  curtains  and  ''balbriggan"  with- 
out dyeing.  Its  superior  market  value  has  already 
been  noted  (see  page  337). 

Of  all  the  experiments  and  investigations  con- 
ducted by  the  British  Cotton  Growing  Association, 

«  W.  L.  Balls,  as  cited;  pp.  1-3. 


BRITISH  PEOSPECTS  IN  EGYPT      373 

those  for  the  purpose  of  developing  additional  cot- 
ton areas  in  Egypt  afford  the  richest  promise.  The 
Gezira  Plain,  in  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan,  contains 
about  4,500  square  miles,  consisting  of  a  Delta 
formed  between  the  two  Niles  ages  ago  by  the  de- 
posit of  rich  alluvial  soil  from  the  Blue  Nile.  The 
whole  cultivable  land  of  Egypt  is  only  12,000  square 
miles ;  therefore  this  one  plain  in  the  Sudan  is  one- 
third  as  large  as  the  whole  of  Egypt  for  agricultural 
purposes.  Its  complete  irrigation  would  cost  about 
three  million  pounds  sterling,  there  being  sufficient 
water  in  the  Blue  Nile,  at  the  season  required,  to  per- 
mit of  the  cultivation  of  a  million  acres  without  hurt- 
ing Egyptian  interests.^ 

In  1912  a  deputation  from  the  Cotton  Growing  As- 
sociation, after  visiting  the  Sudan,  reported  on  the 
Gezira  Plain  as  **one  of  the  finest  cotton  proposi- 
tions in  the  world'*;  saying  that  there  seemed  to  be 
no  reason  why  in  the  next  few  years  there  should 
not  be  raised  annually  50,000  bales  or  more  of  really 
high-class  Egyptian  cotton,  with  the  prospect  of  the 
production  increasing  to  250,000  bales  within  ten  to 
fifteen  years,  and  with  further  possibilities  later  on 
of  a  production  of  a  million  bales  or  more. 

To  sum  up:  At  the  International  Congress  of 
Tropical  Agriculture,  which  the  writer  attended  in 
London  in  June,  1914,  the  chairman  of  the  council  of 
the  British  Cotton  Growing  Association  asserted 
that  this  Association  had  ''definitely  proved  that  the 
British  Empire  can  produce  the  cotton  which  Lanca- 
shire requires.  The  quantity  is,  of  course,  at  pres- 
ent small  in  comparison  with  Lancashire's  total  con- 

*8iT.  Wm.  Mather,  Egypt  and  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan: 
Southampton,  1910;   p.  36. 


374        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

sumption,  but  the  rate  of  progress  we  have  achieved 
is  infinitely  greater  than  was  the  case  in  the  early 
days  of  cotton  growing  in  the  United  States  of 
America. ' '  ^ 

5  J.  Arthur  Hutton,  The  Work  of  the  British  Cotton  Growing 
Association:     London,  1914;  p.  35. 

Note  on  Staples  and  Grades. — The  "staple"  of  American  cotton, 
omitting  the  limited  special  variety  of  sea-island  cotton,  witli  a 
fibre  of  great  length  and  strength,  varies  in  length  from  about  % 
inch  to  about  ly^  inches.  Every  increase  in  the  length  of  the  fibre 
results  in  an  increase  in  the  value.  This  is  particularly  true  when 
the  fibre  has  a  length  of  li^e  inches  or  more.  From  that  point  every 
addition  of  i^e  "'^^  ^o  the  fibre  adds  cumulatively  to  the  price. 
The  trade  name  for  the  shorter  stapled  cottons  is  "upland" — 
from  %  inch  to  1  inch  in  length.  The  somewhat  longer  stapled 
cottons  (from  1  inch  to  l^g  inches)  are  known  as  "Gulf"  and 
"Texas"  cottons.  The  long  stapled  cottons  (from  1%^  to  1^  inches), 
grown  in  the  Mississippi  Delta,  are  known  as  "rivers"  or  "benders," 
because  raised  on  the  rich  alluvial  land  in  the  bends  of  the  rivers. — 
No  matter  what  the  length  of  staple  may  be,  its  value  varies  in 
respect  to  color  (white,  tinged,  and  stained)  and  the  aomunt  of 
dry  leaf,  dust,  and  other  extraneous  matter.  As  this  matter  must 
be  taken  out  of  the  cotton  before  it  is  spun,  and  is  a  pure  loss 
to  the  spinner,  the  relative  amount  of  it  in  any  particular  cotton 
further  affects  the  value.  Consequently  all  cotton  has  to  be  sep- 
arated into  "grades."  That  grade  which  seems  originally  to  have 
been  thought  to  represent  a  fair  average  of  quality  is  known  as 
"middling."  The  scale  of  the  additions  to  or  subtractions  from 
the  value  of  "middling,"  to  arrive  at  the  value  of  the  other  grades, 
is  known  as  the  scale  of  "differences." — Marsh,  as  cited. 


CHAPTER  74 

CALIFOENIA  AND   OTHEB  BIVALS   OF   THE   SOUTH 

So  choice  is  Egyptian  cotton  that  in  some  of  the 
progressive  Southern  mills  in  America  only  this  im- 
ported fiber  is  handled,  although  the  surrounding 
fields  may  be  white  with  the  short-staple  variety, 
sea-island  cotton  is  grown  wholly  on  the  South  At- 
lantic seaboard,  yet  during  the  last  ten  years  Ameri- 
can importations  of  Egyptian  lint  have  exceeded  its 
total  production,  averaging  140,000  bales  annually. 
Recognizing  the  peculiar  value  of  Egyptian  cotton, 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  has  ex- 
perimented with  it  in  Arizona  and  Southern  Cali- 
fornia. Five  hundred  acres  were  planted,  with 
profitable  results,  in  1912,  and  several  thousand 
acres  in  1913,  yielding,  with  proper  attention,  a  bale 
to  the  acre.  Southern  California  has  not  only 
demonstrated,  on  a  very  broad  scale,  the  possi- 
bility of  successful  competition  with  the  Cotton  Belt 
— ^by  means  of  irrigation — in  short-staple  cotton,  but 
can  also  successfully  produce  the  Egyptian  variety 
on  a  commercial  basis. 

The  Imperial  Valley  of  Southern  California  af- 
fords an  interesting  analogy  to  the  Delta  of  the  Nile. 
Having  held  in  former  ages  the  northern  arm  of  the 
Gulf  of  California,  it  is  now  a  huge  dry  basin,  below 
sea  level,  with  an  area  of  a  million  and  a  half  acres, 
into  which  the  Colorado  River  has  for  thousands  of 
years  been  pouring  sediment  until  now  the  rich 

375 


376        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

alluvial  soil  has  a  known  depth  of  more  than  a  thou- 
sand feet.  With  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, private  enterprise  undertook  the  irrigation 
of  this  vast  sunken  garden,  but  in  1905- '06  the 
river  broke  through  its  bounds,  forming  the  Salton 
Sea,  and  threatening  irreparable  destruction. 
Through  the  cooperation  of  President  Roosevelt  and 
Mr.  Edward  H.  Harriman  the  river  was  dramatically 
forced  back  into  its  old  bed,  with  infinite  labor,  and 
then  by  a  strange  ''act  of  God"  two  channels  were 
carved  through  the  yielding  soil  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  produce  just  the  right  drainage  system  needed  to 
redeem  the  soil  from  ''sourness"  and  make  irriga- 
tion effective.^  In  an  urgent  message  to  Congress 
Mr.  Roosevelt  predicted  land  values  of  $1,500  per 
acre  should  reclamation  succeed.  Much  of  this  land 
is  now  actually  yielding  a  net  return  of  ten  per  cent 
on  a  value  of  $5,000  per  acre,  375,000  acres  having 
water,  and  almost  the  entire  valley  being  susceptible 
of  irrigation. 

A  few  acres  planted  in  cotton  in  1908  produced 
such  effective  results  that  in  the  following  year  three 
hundred  bales  were  ginned  in  the  Valley.  Since  that 
time  the  production  in  bales  has  increased  as  fol- 
lows: 1910,  5,986;  1911,  9,790;  1912,  8,215;  1913,  22,- 
838;  1914,  49,835.2 

There  are  now  about  fifty  thousand  acres  under 
cultivation,  and  a  bale  to  the  acre  is  usually  pro- 
duced, just  as  the  Government  had  predicted;  on 
February  9,  1915,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  re- 
ported that  both  long-  and  short-staple  cottons  in 
California  were  yielding  500  pounds  to  the  acre. 

1  A  pleasant  story  of  the  development  of  the  Imperial  Valley  is 
told  by  Mr.  Harold  Bell  Wright  in  The  Winning  of  Barbara  Worth. 

2  Bulletin,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Commerce,  Cotton  Production,  Jime 
16,  1915;  p.  5. 


CALIFORNIA  AND  OTHER  RIVALS     377 

The  State  making  the  next  best  showing  was  Mis- 
souri, where  ''long"  runs  325  and  ''short"  295 
per  acre,  while  the  yield  in  Louisiana  was  only  150 
pounds  per  acre  for  long-staple  and  162  for  short.^ 
The  value  of  the  California  crop  for  1913  was  $1,- 
530,000 ;  that  of  1914  would  have  been  worth,  under 
normal  conditions,  $5,500,000.  The  bulletin  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  for  the  preceding  year 
rated  the  general  condition  of  cotton  crops  in  several 
of  the  cotton  areas  as  follows:  Oklahoma,  42  per 
cent,  Texas,  63  per  cent,  South  Carolina,  70  per  cent, 
Georgia,  72  per  cent,  Virginia,  75  per  cent,  Florida, 
78  per  cent,  and  the  Imperial  Valley,  100  per  cent, 
or  perfect. 

Among  the  features  that  render  this  "American 
Nile"  land  so  favorable  to  cotton  growing  may  be 
mentioned  its  uniformly  warm  and  sunny  climate; 
the  almost  complete  absence  of  rain,  and  a  conse- 
quent stainlessness  of  product ;  the  certainty  of  suf- 
ficient water  at  just  the  right  time,  and  no  other ;  the 
soil-enriching  deposits  of  the  Colorado  River,  mak- 
ing the  expensive  use  of  artificial  fertilizers  un- 
necessary; favorable  labor  conditions,  with  excel- 
lent transportation  facilities;  and  an  apparent  im- 
munity from  the  boll  weevil. 

While  Egyptian  cotton  can  be  and  is  successfully 
cultivated  in  the  Imperial  Valley,^  it  is  not  so  popular 
as  the  new  "Durango"  variety,^  and  for  an  interest- 
ing reason.     The  burr  of  the  Egyptian  boll  curls 

8  Los  Angeles  Times,  Feb.  9,  1915. 

*  "During  the  season  of  1913-14  a  considerable  quantity  of  the 
Yuma  variety  of  Egyptian  cotton  was  shipped  to  Liverpool,  and  it 
is  believed  that  the  results  were  very  satisfactory,  not  only  to  the 
owners  of  the  cotton,  but  to  the  spinners  who  bought  it." — Todd, 
p.  235. 

B  So  called  from  the  name  of  the  Mexican  State  from  which  the 
seed  were  obtained. 


378        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

backward  at  picking  time,  so  as  to  remove  proper 
protection  from  the  fiber,  which  often  strings  out  or 
is  blown  away,  making  the  picking  tedious,  expensive, 
and  comparatively  unsatisfactory ;  while  the  Durango 
burr,  like  the  Upland,  holds  the  fiber  compactly  in 
place,  yet  opens  sufficiently  for  easy  picking. 

Durango  staple  is  a  quarter-inch  longer  than  Up- 
land, giving  it  a  greater  value  of  three  cents  to  the 
pound,  although  costing  little  more  to  produce. 
Five  thousand  bales  of  the  1913  crop  were  Durango, 
selling  at  $85  a  bale  as  against  $62.50  for  Upland. 
But  that  Upland  is  successfully  grown  in  the  Valley 
appears  from  the  fact  that  the  Land  and  Irrigation 
Exposition  held  at  Madison  Square  Garden,  New 
York,  in  1911,  awarded  to  this  locality  its  *' Grand 
Sweepstakes  Prize"  for  the  best  short-staple  cotton 
grown  in  the  United  States  in  1911,  foreshadowing 
the  grand  prize  for  cotton  growing  awarded  to  the 
Imperial  Valley  by  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition  at 
San  Francisco  in  1915.^ 

« Southern  California  cotton  was  easily  the  feature  of  the  Cali- 
fornia State  section  in  the  Palace  of  Agriculture  at  the  Panama- 
Pacific  International  Exposition.  Designed  merely  to  call  attention 
to  the  most  significant  of  the  later  developments  of  agriculture  in 
California,  the  cotton  display  not  only  led  in  interest  in  the  Golden 
State's  own  exhibits,  but  constituted  one  of  the  sensations  of  the 
Exposition  itself.  To  the  utter  amazement  of  all,  Southern  Cali- 
fornia cotton  was  awarded  the  grand  prize  for  the  best  display  of 
cotton  and  its  by-products  over  the  oldest  cotton  growing  sections 
in  the  country. — The  handling  of  the  display  was  a  good  example 
of  the  exhibitor's  art  at  its  best.  Flanked  on  either  side  by  bales 
of  snowy  cotton  and  by  manufactured  cotton  goods,  stood  an  old- 
time  spinning  wheel  that  from  morning  till  night  turned  lint  into 
cotton  thread.  Mrs.  Ella  Swickard,  who  learned  as  a  girl  in  Texas 
to  fashion  the  insubstantial  lint  into  strong  even  thread,  was  the 
manipulator  of  the  antique  machine.  Her  deftness  was  the  marvel 
of  the  visitors,  most  of  whom  had  never  seen  a  .spinning  wheel  in 
use.  While  she  took  the  cotton  from  the  bolls  and  drew  it  out  into 
thread  on  the  wheel  she  lectured  to  the  crowd.  The  cotton  spvm 
was  sent  to  various  California  schools  to  be  woven. — The  highest 


CALIFORNIA  AND  OTHER  RIVALS     379 

The  earliest  bale  of  cotton  ever  ginned  in  the 
United  States  was  grown  near  Calexico,  the  **  cotton 
capital"  of  the  Imperial  Valley,  and  ginned  on  June 
17, 1914,  three  days  earlier  than  the  previous  record, 
held  by  Brownsville,  Texas.  What  makes  this  record 
the  more  interesting  is  the  fact  that  this  cotton  was 
grown  as  the  third  crop  on  the  same  stalks.  More- 
over, seed  taken  from  this  record  cotton  and  planted 
on  its  native  acre  produced  a  second  bale,  which  was 
ginned  on  October  15  of  the  same  year.'^  The  climate 
of  the  Imperial  Valley  is  such  that  plants  usually  live 
through  the  winter.  If  these  are  cut  down  in  March 
to  within  six  inches  of  the  ground,  and  the  water  is 
turned  on,  the  next  crop  ** volunteers"  from  the 
stumps  of  the  old,  and  is  ready  for  picking  in  Sep- 
tember. While  a  volunteer  crop  yields  less  than  an 
original  planting,  it  has  the  double  advantage  of 
early  maturity  and  extremely  low  cost. 

The  extent  of  the  cotton  industry  in  the  Imperial 
Valley  has  called  for  the  installation  of  twenty-two 
modem  gins,  three  cottonseed  oil  miUs,  and  two 
compresses. 

Not  only  Southern  California,  but  parts  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona  are  now  forcing  admission  to 
the  hitherto  exclusive  ** Cotton  Belt"  with  the  magi- 
cal key  of  irrigation.  Daniel  Webster  chose  a  singu- 
larly infelicitous  illustration  for  his  argument  in 
1850  against  the  Wilmot  Proviso  (see  page  219). 
Arizona  produced  2,299  bales  in  1913,  and  7,142  bales 

grades  of  cotton  were  included  in  the  exhibit.  The  by-products 
shown  indicated  the  remarkable  uses  to  which  cotton  and  its  seed 
may  be  put.  A  striking  feature  of  the  display  was  a  single  cotton 
plant  bearing  250  well-formed  bolls,  the  largest  number  on  record. — 
P.  H.  Magill,  Jr.,  in  the  Los  Angeles  Times. 

7  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  California  Development 
Board:     San  Francisco,  1915;  p.  44. 


380        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

in  1914.    Todd  thinks  that  irrigation  may  become 
the  ruling  method  of  cotton  growing.^ 

South  America,  when  it  begins  that  development 
which  will  surely  be  a  challenging  economic  oppor- 
tunity of  the  twentieth  century,  may  be  confidently 
expected  to  contest  the  monopoly  of  the  Cotton  Belt. 
The  late  Edward  Atkinson  in  1889  described  the  high 
pampas  of  the  Paraguay  and  Parana  rivers  as  suf- 
ficiently elevated  to  be  free  from  tropical  condi- 
tions, endowed  with  a  soil  of  wonderful  f ertilitj'',  and 
capable  of  unlimited  crops  of  cotton  and  wheat — 
one  section  of  the  earth's  surface  where,  in  his 
judgment,  there  can  be  competition  with  our  Cotton 
States.®  Professor  Todd  believes  that  there  are 
perhaps  greater  possibilities  of  cotton  growing  in 
the  Argentine  Republic  than  in  any  other  country  in 
the  world,^^  while  Mexico  is  not  to  be  despised,^^ — 
and,  to  take  a  long  jump,  the  site  of  the  original  Gar- 
den of  Eden,  in  Mesopotamia,  affords  potentialities 
almost  unlimited !  ^^    Russia  also  is  making  rapid 

8  Pp.  vii  and  11. 

»  While  the  cotton  crop  of  Peru  amounts  to  only  142,000  bales 
(1913-14),  it  is  noteworthy  both  because  of  its  ancient  history  and 
on  account  of  its  excellent  quality  (see  p.  116).  Peru  grows  a  spe- 
cial variety  of  cotton,  called  "gossypium  Peruvianum,"  a  tree-like 
variety,  reaching  9  to  15  feet  in  height;  its  life  is  six  years,  when 
the  crop  begins  to  fall  off.  This  variety  can  better  endure  the  want 
of  water  than  the  Egyptian  cotton;  in  fact,  on  good  land  it  re- 
quires only  one  watering  to  insure  a  good  crop.  The  crop  begins 
to  appear  in  18  months,  increasing  in  yield  until  the  sixth  year. 
The  fiber  is  long  and  frequently  exceeds  35  millimeters,  but  it  is 
rough  and  known  in  the  English  market  as  "full  rough  Peruvian." 
When  carded  it  looks  greatly  like  wool,  and  is  often  used  by  manu- 
facturers as  a  mixture  in  the  manufacture  of  woolen  goods.  The 
Egyptian  or  soft  cotton  is  also  grown  along  the  entire  coast  of 
Peru,  but  its  life  is  only  two  years. — Resources  of  Peru:  San  Fran- 
cisco, n,  d.  For  Edward  Atkinson  on  Cotton,  see  e.  g..  The  In- 
dustrial Progress  of  the  Nation:     New  York,   1889,  eh.  i. 

10  Todd,  p.  218. 

"Todd,  p.  131. 

12  Todd,  p.  81. 


CALIFORNIA  AND  OTHER  RIVALS     381 

strides  forward,  as  shown  by  its  production  in  bales 
for  ten  years,  as  follows :  ^^ 

1904-05 554,000  1909-10 785,000 

1905-06 585,000  1910-11 981,000 

1906-07 655,000  1911-12 939,000 

1907-08 620,000  1912-13 917,352 

1908-09 846,000  1913-14 1,004,328 

The  writer,  for  many  years  a  believer  in  the  ability 
of  the  Cotton  Belt  to  retain  monopolistic  control  of 
cotton  production,  has  come  to  the  conclusion,  after 
a  study  of  the  subject  in  several  different  parts  of 
the  world,  that  his  former  opinion  was  wrong.  He 
believes,  however,  that  the  South  has  no  serious 
cause  for  alarm,  but  plenty  of  reason  for  caution. 
It  seems  very  likely  that  cotton  will,  on  the  whole, 
become  and  remain  high  in  price,  owing  to  a  con- 
stantly increasing  demand.  If  the  statement  be 
true,  or  anjrwise  nearly  true,  that  only  one  acre  out 
of  seventeen  in  the  Cotton  Belt  is  as  yet  under  cot- 
ton cultivation,  then  the  South  for  an  indefinite 
period  can  extend  its  acreage,  while  foreign  areas  are 
still  in  the  stage  of  experiment. 

But  it  is  far  more  important  to  encourage  inten- 
sive cultivation.  While  the  average  yield  of  cotton 
in  the  Southeastern  United  States  is  only  about  190 
pounds  of  lint  to  the  acre,  yet  on  many  large  tracts, 
carefully  cultivated,  a  yield  of  from  500  to  800  pounds 
is  not  infrequently  obtained.^^  Dr.  Dabney  says  that 
the  cotton  crop  should  be  doubled  on  the  same  acre- 
age by  the  use  of  good  seed  and  careful  methods  of 
tillage  and  fertilization.  Furthermore,  impoverish- 
ment of  the  soil  should  certainly  be  avoided,  as  may 

IS  Todd,  p.  397   (U.  S.  Dept.  of  Commerce  figures). 
14  C.  W.  Dabney,  "Relations  of  Agriculture  to  Other  Sciences,"  in 
Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences:  Boston,  1906;  p.  724. 


382        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

be  done  through  rotation  of  crops,  which  would  oper- 
ate further  in  the  direction  of  sound  economics  by 
giving  the  planter  independence  in  the  matter  of 
food-stuffs  and  provender;  and  the  ravages  of  the 
boll  weevil  should  be  checked  by  intelligent  methods, 
including  the  enforcement  of  strict  laws  for  the  pro- 
tection of  birds — the  quail  particularly  being  an  in- 
veterate enemy  of  this  destructive  and  apparently  in- 
destructible pest.  There  is  no  reason,  if  due  intelli- 
gence and  industry  be  used,  why  the  optimism  of  the 
present  American  Ambassador  to  England  should 
not  be  confirmed,  and  **the  cotton  grower  in  the  old 
Slave  States  become  the  most  prosperous  tiller  of 
the  earth'* — justifying  the  eloquence  of  Grady,  who 
once  exclaimed : 

*  *  Cotton — ^what  a  royal  plant  it  is  I  Not  the  fleeces 
that  Jason  sought  can  rival  the  richness  of  this 
plant,  as  it  unfurls  its  banners  in  our  fields.  It  is 
gold  from  the  instant  it  puts  forth  its  tiny  shoot. 
The  world  waits  in  attendance  on  its  growth;  the 
shower  that  falls  whispering  on  its  leaves  is  heard 
around  the  earth;  the  sun  that  shines  on  it  is  tem- 
pered by  the  prayers  of  all  the  people ;  the  frost  that 
chills  it  and  the  dew  that  descends  from  the  stars  are 
noted,  and  the  trespass  of  a  little  worm  upon  its 
green  leaf  is  more  to  England  than  the  advance  of 
the  Russian  army  on  her  Asian  outposts.*''  Its 
fiber  is  current  in  every  bank  and  when,  loosing  its 
fleeces  to  the  sun,  it  floats  a  sunny  banner  that  glori- 
fies the  fields  of  the  humble  farmer,  that  man  is  mar- 
shaled under  a  flag  that  will  compel  the  allegiance  of 
the  world  and  wring  a  subsidy  from  every  nation 
on  earth."  *^ 

15  Written  in  1887. 

16 H.  W.  Grady,  Writings  and  Speeches:  New  York,  1890;  p.  107, 
\l  and  Burkett  and  Poe,  p.  3. 


CHAPTER  75 

EVOLUTION  AND   HUMAN   WELFARE 

Incomplete,  and  with  only  meager  suggestions, 
here  and  there,  where  independent  volumes  would  be 
warranted,  has  been  this  sketch  of  the  course  of  our 
narrative  from  prehistoric  times  to  the  present. 
Beginning  with  perplexing  myth  and  ancient  legend, 
but  planting  our  feet  on  firm  historic  ground  in  an- 
cient India,  we  followed  the  course  of  empire  ever 
westward,  through  Renaissance  and  revolution  and 
civil  war,  the  power  of  cotton  evolving  with  the  evo- 
lution of  the  power  of  man,  only  to  reach  our  conclu- 
sion at  a  moment  when  the  subject  engaging  our 
attention  holds  an  unusual  share  of  world-wide  in- 
terest by  virtue  of  its  complex  entanglement  in  the 
maddest  human  havoc  that  has  ever  cursed  the 
earth, — a  havoc  made  deadly  beyond  the  wildest 
dreams  of  ancient  hate  through  those  very  powers 
of  civilization  that  spell  the  highest  gifts  of  man. 

It  is  a  fact  by  no  means  encouraging  to  the  lover  of 
his  kind  that  while  the  housing  of  well-to-do  men 
and  their  clothing  are  scarcely  on  a  higher  level  now 
than  they  were  in  ancient  Egypt  long  before  the 
earliest  date  in  cotton  history,^  the  war-club  of  that 
time  has  become  the  42-centimeter  gun,  the  puny 
bow  is  now  a  seven-league  catapult,  and  Pharaoh's 

1  Of  course  the  comforts  of  life  are  far  more  widely  distributed; 
men  of  average  means  now  share  them  with  the  well-to-do;  this, 
rather  than  an  absolute  advance  in  housing  and  clothing,  would 
seem  to  denote  the  chief  material  advantage  of  the  modern  world 
over  the  ancient. 

383 


384        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWEE 

chariots  have  evolved  into  battleships  and  Zeppe- 
lins. The  art  of  weaving  produces  no  more  beau- 
tiful raiment  than  those  Tyrian  hues  wrought  by 
Arachne  on  her  primitive  Maeonian  loom,  nothing 
more  fine  and  delicate  than  those  *'webs  of  the 
woven  wind"  conjured  from  the  heart  of  the  cotton 
boll  by  the  Hindu  with  his  handful  of  reeds, — and 
yet  our  innocent  fleece  has  been  transmuted  in  the 
crucible  of  war  to  a  veritable  magic  of  condensed 
power  for  the  mutilation  and  destruction  of  human 
life  and  property. 

A  brilliant  dramatist,  impressed  with  this  discour- 
aging discrepancy,  imagines  Satan  as  thus  taunting 
man: 

**Have  you  walked  up  and  down  the  earth  lately? 
I  have;  and  I  have  examined  Man's  wonderful  in- 
ventions. And  I  tell  you  that  in  the  arts  of  life  man 
invents  nothing ;  but  in  the  arts  of  death  he  outdoes 
Nature  herself,  and  produces  by  chemistry  and  ma- 
chinery all  the  slaughter  of  plague,  pestilence  and 
famine.  The  peasant  I  tempt  to-day  eats  and  drinks 
what  was  eaten  and  drunk  by  the  peasants  of  ten 
thousand  years  ago;  and  the  house  he  lives  in  has 
not  altered  as  much  in  a  thousand  centuries  as  the 
fashion  of  a  lady 's  bonnet  in  a  score  of  weeks.  But 
when  he  goes  out  to  slay,  he  carries  a  marvel  of 
mechanism  that  lets  loose  at  the  touch  of  his  finger 
all  the  hidden  molecular  energies,  and  leaves  the 
javelin,  the  arrow,  the  blowpipe  of  his  fathers  far 
behind.  In  the  arts  of  peace  man  is  a  bungler.  I 
have  seen  his  cotton  factories  and  the  like,  with  ma- 
chinery that  a  greedy  dog  could  have  invented  if  it 
had  wanted  money  instead  of  food.  I  know  his 
clumsy  typewriters  and  bungling  locomotives  and 
tedious  bicycles:  they  are  toys  compared  to  the 


EVOLUTION  AND  HUMAN  WELFARE     385 

Maxim  gun,  the  submarine  torpedo  boat.  There  is 
nothing  in  Man's  industrial  machinery  but  his  greed 
and  sloth:  his  heart  is  in  his  weapons.  This  mar- 
velous force  of  Life  of  which  you  boast  is  a  force  of 
Death:  Man  measures  his  strength  by  his  destruc- 
tiveness. ' '  ^ 

There  is  poetry  in  this  dramatic  monologue,  and 
also  poetic  license ;  but  that  there  is  some  truth  in  it, 
who  can  deny?  A  sober  biologist,  writing  on  the 
topic,  **War,  Science  and  Civilization,"  matches  this 
sardonic  eloquence  of  Bernard  Shaw's  devil  with 
the  measured  statement  that  dominant  ethical  theory 
seems  to  be  essentially  what  it  was  when  human  his- 
tory was  supposed  to  have  begun  with  Adam  and 
Eve,  or  Romulus  and  Remus,  *'or  other  full-fledged 
mythical  personages,"  while  if  the  history  of  lead- 
ing nations  during  the  last  half-century  be  viewed  in 
the  light  of  the  course  and  nature  of  scientific  dis- 
covery, **the  supposition  seems  justified  that  civili- 
zation is  well  on  the  road  to  self-destruction  through 
its  power  of  creating  and  using  mechanical  appli- 
ances for  thus  disposing  of  itself."* 

Professor  Ritter  confirms  the  opinion,  already  ex- 
pressed in  Chapter  21,  that  the  widespread  accept- 
ance of  the  jungle  law  of  struggle  and  survival  as 
the  single,  permanent,  and  inevitable  condition  of 
social  progress  accounts  largely  for  those  hideous 
anomalies  whereof  he  writes.  The  abuse  of  this  doc- 
trine, he  believes,  has  done  ** incalculable  harm,  not 
only  to  biology,  but  to  sociology  and  to  human  wel- 
fare generally.  The  doctrine  that  all  human  prog- 
ress is  accomplished  by  somebody's  beating  some- 

2  Bernard  Shaw,  Man  and  Superman:  New  York,  1913;  pp.  106- 
107. 
3W.  E.  Ritter,  War,  Science  and  Civilization:  Boston,  1915 j  p.  20. 


386        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

body  else,  usually  to  the  death,  has  had  such  vogue 
during  the  last  few  decades,  particularly  in  business 
and  politics,  that  it  sometimes  seems  hopeless  to  get 
people  to  see  how  far  it  comes  from  agreeing  with  all 
the  relevant  facts."* 

As  pointed  out  in  Chapter  21,  the  law  of  struggle 
and  survival,  which  was  brought  to  light  against  the 
gloomy  background  of  conditions  occasioned  by  the 
Industrial  Revolution  in  England,  suggests  at  most 
not  more  than  half  of  the  secret  processes  at  work  in 
the  laboratories  of  Nature.  A  green  field  on  a  sum- 
mer's day  reveals  to  the  searching  eye  not  only  over- 
crowding and  strife,  but,  quite  as  clearly  and  cer- 
tainly, organization  and  sacrifice.  The  vegetative 
process  of  mere  expansive  growth,  by  which  the  plant 
as  an  individual  presses  upward  and  outward  ambi- 
tiously, and  at  hazard  to  itself  and  its  neighbors,  is 
continually  controlled  and  modified  by  that  floral 
process  which  appropriates  the  strength  of  the  in- 
dividual toward  the  function  of  family  reproduction, 
— a  flower  being  essentially  a  sort  of  ''protean  birth- 
robe"  for  seed.^  Biologists  assure  us  that  the  fur- 
ther we  carry  our  studies  of  plant  anatomy,  the  more 
we  shall  find  of  this  subordination  of  the  merely 
vegetative  or  nutritive  process  to  the  reproductive, 
so  that  the  "self-interest"  in  which  the  utilitarian 
economists  found  the  all-sufficient  spring  of  action, 
and  which  naturalists  too  long  and  too  uncritically 
adopted  from  these,  turns  out  to  be  enlightened  by 
family  interest,  species  interest,  however  ''subcon- 
scious," so  to  speak;  and  the  ideal  of  evolution  is 
thus  seen  to  be  no  mere  "gladiator's  show,"  as  was 

*The  same,  p.  75. 

6  P.  Geddes  and  J.  Arthur  Thomson,  Evolution :   London,  n.  d. ; 
pp.  95,  241,  243. 


EVOLUTION  AND  HUMAN  WELFAEE     387 

formerly  thought,  but  rather  a  cooperative  common- 
wealth; diversified  through  differentiation  and 
checked  by  competition,  it  is  true — natural  selection 
furnishing  the  brake,  however,  rather  than  the  steam 
or  the  rails  for  the  journey  of  life,  or,  as  in  St. 
George  Mivart's  figure  of  speech,  not  guiding  the 
ramifications  of  the  tree  of  life,  but  applying  the 
pruning-knife. 

Cotton  itself,  our  beautiful  and  beneficent  **Gossy- 
pium,"  is  an  exquisite  example  of  the  check  on  mere 
vegetative  expansion — as  typified  in  grass — by 
subordination  to  the  claims  of  the  family.  First  the 
delicate  flowers,  cream-colored  and  pink  and  then 
crimson,  proclaim  and  prepare  the  way  for  the  great 
procreative  ceremonial  to  which  the  life  of  the  plant 
is  dedicated.  Then  appears  a  tightly  closed  casket 
holding  its  precious  embryos.  When  these  seed-chil- 
dren have  been  nurtured  toward  maturity,  the  casket, 
opening  to  the  sunlight,  and  rocking  in  the  breezes, 
becomes  a  veritable  cradle,  lined  with  that  downy 
fleece  which  forms  our  cherished  article  of  commerce, 
but  which  has  no  other  object  in  the  economy  of 
botany  than  the  care  of  the  family  seed,  to  which  the 
entire  vegetative  process  is  subordinated. 

The  whole  phenomenon  of  organization,  coopera- 
tion, or  *' integration,"  as  it  is  comprehensively 
called,  holds  quite  as  important  a  place  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  plants  and  animals  as  differentiation,  which 
arises  from  natural  selection.  Indeed,  the  animal 
kingdom  is  higher  than  the  plant  kingdom,  not  only 
because  the  individual  animal  is  more  differentiated, 
but  because  it  is  more  highly  integrated  than  any  in- 
dividual plant.  And  yet,  as  Professor  Ritter  re- 
marks, thought  about  evolution  has  been  cast  so  ex- 
clusively in  molds  of  antagonism,  and  combat  to  the 


388        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWEB 

death,  that  the  constitutive  and  coordinative  aspects 
of  the  process  have  had  little  chance  of  recognition. 
Men  have  taken  whatever  measures  they  deemed 
necessary  to  overcome  their  competitors,  justifying 
their  conduct  by  appealing  to  the  phrase,  *'the  fittest 
survive.'*  At  this  moment  militarists  are  loudly  in- 
voking **the  struggle  for  existence"  and  ''natural 
selection"  in  justification  of  war,  while  the  truth  is, 
as  emphasized  by  Kropotkin  in  his  book  on  ''Mutual 
Aid  as  a  Factor  of  Evolution,"  that  organic  evolu- 
tion is  just  as  fundamentally  an  organizing,  an  in- 
tegrating, process,  as  it  is  a  differentiating  process.^ 
Coming  now  to  more  familiar  and  less  technical 
ground, — Nature  affords  abundant  and  impressive 
community  examples,  among  insects  and  animals, 
of  the  benefits  of  cooperation.  Ants  are  even  more 
remarkable  than  bees.  The  formicary  is  a  laby- 
rinthine set  of  catacombs,  some  chambers  being 
utilized  as  storehouses,  others  as  nurseries,  and  still 
others  as  stables  for  "pets,"  such  as  crickets,  or  for 
the  ants'  "cattle,"  such  as  Aphides,  which  are  shut 
up  for  safety  during  winter,  and  turned  out  to  pas- 
turage in  the  spring  and  summer.  Here  we  come 
upon  the  challenging  fact  that  not  only  do  single 
species  cooperate  in  commonwealths  for  the  general 
welfare,  but  various  species,  utterly  unlike,  form  in- 
ternational unions,  as  it  were,  for  the  common  good. 
Indeed — not  to  tarry  longer  with  our  wealth  of  illus- 
trative material — perhaps  the  fundamental  fact  of 
all  nature,  and  the  most  important,  is  found  in  the 
interminable  linkages,  the  universal  interrelations, 
which  constitute  a  vast  web  of  life,  the  threads  of 
one  life  getting  caught  up  and  intertwined  with  those 

oRitter,  p.  42. 


EVOLUTION  AND  HUMAN  WELFAEE     389 

of  another,  and  so  on  indefinitely  or  infinitely,  so 
that  in  literal  truth  no  creature  lives  or  dies  to  itself, 
and 

"Thou  canst  not  stir  a  flower 
Without  troubling  a  star." 

Darwin  was  not  unmindful  of  this.  Of  the  phrase, 
"the  struggle  for  existence,"  he  expressly  said:  *'I 
use  this  term  in  a  large  and  metaphorical  sense,  in- 
cluding dependence  of  one  being  on  another,  and  in- 
cluding not  only  the  life  of  the  individual,  but  suc- 
cess in  leaving  progeny. ' ' ""  The  social  and  political 
greed  of  men  has  led  to  the  abortive  seizure  of  the 
half-truth  that  suited  their  purposes,  with  the  result 
that  great  economic  forces,  such  as  the  cotton  in- 
dustry, have  been  made  to  contribute  to  social  misery 
and  to  political  disaster  instead  of  the  further  bind- 
ing together  of  mankind  into  a  great  cooperative 
commonwealth.  It  is  high  time  that  we  forsake  the 
dominant  ethical  theories  of  the  Cro-magnon  cave 
man  of  a  score  of  thousand  years  ago,  and  learn 
from  our  mother  Nature  the  clear  and  simple  truth,  J 
that  modern  human  evolution  rests  necessarily  and 
fundamentally  on  integration  among  many  nations. 

The  evolution  of  man's  inventive  genius  has  has- 
tened the  formulation  and  application  of  this  law.  J 
Steel  rails  now  bind  continents  into  a  network  of 
rapid  mobilization,  so  that  the  wide  barriers  of  space 
which  formerly  shut  oif  the  Alaskans  from  the  Pana- 
manians have  been  transformed  into  areas  of  cos- 
mopolitan intercourse,  while  the  incessantly  moving 
steamships  that  ply  in  the  oceans  are  but  so  many 
ladles  serving  the  ''melting  pot"  which  has  come  to 
be  a  synonym  for  America.    Even  East  and  West, 

1  Cited  by  Greddes  and  Thomson,  p.  167, 


390       COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

wMch  since  the  time  of  Alexander  have  marched  back 
to  back  from  the  Himalayas  until  now  they  stand 
confronting  each  other  across  the  Pacific,  are  inter- 
mingling in  such  numbers  that  already  people  are 
beginning  to  question  the  truth  of  the  poetic  phrase, 
coined  only  yesterday,  and  intended  to  express  an 
axiom, — "Never  the  twain  shall  meet."  Transpor- 
tation, it  may  be  noted  in  passing,  has  dissipated  one 
term  of  the  old  Malthusian  problem,  pressure  of 
population,  by  distributing  populations  from  points 
of  high  to  spots  of  lower  pressure,  as  well  as  by 
bringing  food  supplies  from  unpeopled  plains  to 
dense  cities,^  while  scientific  agriculture  threatens  to 
explode  the  other, — an  inevitable  failure  of  the  neces- 
sary means  of  subsistence, — so  that  scientists  are 
now  willing  to  stimulate  in  us  *'a  mighty  faith  that 
there  is  practically  no  limit  to  Nature 's  capacity  for 
yielding  to  man  all  those  things  which,  from  sources 
outside  himself,  he  truly  needs. "  ^  In  a  word,  the 
streams  of  ethnic  evolution,  for  millenniums  differ- 
ential and  divergent,  are  now  become  convergent  and 
integrational,  while  man's  inventive  genius  promises 
capacity  for  supply  of  all  his  needs,  if  he  will  but 
busy  himself  in  the  cooperative  industries  of  peace. 
Coincidentally  with  this  physical  convergence,  as 
we  have  seen  all  through  the  course  of  this  volume, 
the  same  facilities  of  transportation,  supplemented 
to  an  important  degree  by  such  advanced  implements 
of  communication  as  world-wide  girdles  of  electri- 
fied cables,  and  now  by  the  wireless  ether  itself — 
these  clever  devices,  perfected  largely  at  the  behest 
of  military  rivalry,  have  brought  the  markets  of  the 
world  into  intimate  correlation,  so  that  the  economic 

8  McGregor's  Evolution  of  Industry,  as  cited,  pp.  70,  78. 
sRitter,  p.  99. 


EVOLUTION  AND  HUMAN  WELFARE     391 

interests  of  men  are  so  closely  interwoven  that  a  citi- 
zen of  California  is  compelled  to  affix  tax-stamps  to 
domestic  telegrams  because  Germany  and  Japan  are 
fighting. 

Never  was  the  economic  destructiveness  of  war- 
fare so  clearly  demonstrated,  or  its  ghastly  futility 
so  powerfully  proved,  as  by  the  Great  War  of  1914. 
War  has  become  an  anachronism.  And  yet,  by  vir- 
tue of  the  closely  woven  web  of  delicately  adjusted 
cosmopolitan  interrelations  that  we  have  from  time 
to  time  through  this  book  been  considering,  never  has 
the  peril  of  incessant  and  overwhelming  wars  been 
so  great,  when, — as  we  have  seen  to  our  stupefied 
wonder, — the  pulling  of  a  single  pistol  trigger  in 
Bosnia  may  inflame  millions  of  men,  of  every  color 
and  condition,  and  in  every  quarter  of  the  civilized 
globe,  to  a  mad  frenzy  of  butchery  and  pillage.  Ob- 
viously, if  our  race  is  not  to  perish  at  the  hands  of 
its  militant  Frankenstein,  it  must  rise  to  an  intelli- 
gence high  enough  to  learn  a  simple  secret  from  Na- 
ture, and  discover  that  only  through  cooperation  in 
social  and  political  affairs,  as  in  every  other  circle 
of  universal  life — only  hy  a  broad  internationalism 
can  human  society  avoid  destruction.  The  printer 
Franklin  once  gave  to  the  factional  American  col- 
onies a  cartoon  of  a  rattlesnake  cut  into  thirteen 
pieces  and  labeled  with  the  pungent  motto,  "Join  or 
die."  His  advice  is  just  as  pertinent  now,  inter- 
nationally, as  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  the 
American  colonies. 

The  present  writer  believes  strongly  in  **  prepared- 
ness." The  fact  that  the  law  of  struggle  has  been 
over-emphasized  is  no  reason  for  wheeling  about  and 
under-emphasizing  it.  The  world  being  what  it  is, 
a  nation  is  not  likely  to  ** survive"  that  does  not  keep 


392        COTTON  AS  A  WOELD  POWER 

itself  **fit."  ** National  service"  must  become  onr 
national  law.  Professor  Oliver  has  condensed  a 
whole  volume  into  the  sentence — *'A  democracy 
which  asserts  the  right  of  manhood  suffrage,  while 
denying  the  duty  of  manhood  service,  is  living  in  a 
fool's  paradise."^'*  Internationalism  itself,  in  any 
except  a  false  and  maudlin  sense,  implies  a  coopera- 
tive bond  among  a  group  of  virile  independent  na- 
tions, each  adding  to  the  whole  its  gift  of  self-reliant 
strength  for  common  welfare.  If  America  is  to  exist 
as  a  nation  among  nations,  it  must  be  prepared  to 
struggle  for  survival.  But,  as  Mr.  Norman  Angell 
has  so  clearly  and  so  cogently  explained,^ ^  force- 
preparation,  while  absolutely  indispensable,  is  only 
half  preparation :  there  must  be  an  athletic  thought- 
preparedness  as  to  how  this  force  is  to  be  used,  there 
must  be  an  intelligent  formulation  of  international 
policies,  there  must  be  understanding  clear  as  day 
with  the  other  members  of  the  world-group,  so  that 
force  may  become  less  aggressive,  thought  more 
authoritative,  and  intelligent  cooperation  finally  take 
the  place  of  a  murderous  and  ultimately  suicidal  com- 
petition. With  the  bloody  lesson  of  the  European 
War  staining  the  firmament  for  all  the  world  to  read, 
it  would  seem  that  if  man  cannot  learn  the  truth  now, 
his  case  is  hopeless  and  his  doom  is  sealed.  Mutual 
suspicion  and  misunderstanding  and  stupid  economic 
strife  brought  on  the  war,  while  it  is  equally  true  that 
an  intelligent  taking  counsel  together  and  a  mutually 
regardful  economic  cooperation  could  have  estab- 
lished, very  literally,  a  modus  vivendi,  whereas  our 

10  F.  S.  Oliver,  Ordeal  by  Battle:  London,  1915;  p.  400.  (One 
of  the  most  thoughtful  and  valuable  discussions  provoked  by  the 
European  War). 

"The  Dangers  of  Half -Preparedness :     New  York,  1916. 


EVOLUTION  AND  HUMAN  WELFAKE     393 

present  mucli-boasted  "efficiency"  results  only  in  a 
highly  effective  modus  moriendi. 

Cotton  itself  has  already  entangled  us  in  a  costly 
civil  strife,  and  there  are  signs  of  its  contributing, 
in  the  immediate  future,  to  the  further  complication 
of  our  already  perplexed  foreign  relationships.  The 
struggle  for  the  ''mastery  of  the  Pacific,"  for  ex- 
ample, involves  cotton  as  a  prime  consideration. 
Shall  we  permit  this  economic  web  to  enmesh  us 
again,  like  stupid  and  greedy  flies,  or  shall  we  not 
rather  grasp  and  weave  it  to  a  pattern  of  intelligence 
and  far-reaching  welfare?  If  Japan  is  to  become 
the  Lancashire  of  the  Orient  or  if  the  whole  East- 
ern littoral  of  Asia  is  to  become  the  world's  most 
plentiful  workshop  in  the  cheaper  grades  of  cotton 
manufacture,^^  as  economists  confidently  prophesy, 
these  results  will  be  due  to  great  geographical, 
climatic,  and  sociological  causes  that  are  absolutely 
beyond  our  control  in  the  long  run,  although  the  ulti- 
mate event  may  be  artificially  hindered  and  retarded. 
A  struggle  to  hinder  and  retard  would  only  secure 
temporary  profit  at  the  cost  of  eventual  loss  and  a 
probable  war,  whereas  an  intelligent  mutual  study  of 
the  problem  in  all  its  phases  would  undoubtedly  dis- 
cover some  feasible  plan  of  economic  cooperation, 
besides  contributing  to  that  ''better  understanding" 
which  is  the  best  known  antidote  to  war.  If  Japan 
and  China  have  distinctive  advantages  with  respect 
to  cheap  manufacture,  America  has  a  practical  mo- 
nopoly of  production,  as  well  as  virtually  unlimited 
possibilities  in  the  development  of  certain  grades  of 
manufacture  to  which  the  Oriental  genius  is  ill- 
adapted.    There  should  be  a  frank  recognition  of 

12  See  page  351. 


394        COTTON  AS  A  WORLD  POWER 

respective  advantages,  and  such  a  substitution  of  in- 
telligence for  stupidity  that  "the  struggle  for  the 
mastery  of  the  Pacific"  should  give  way  to  a  part- 
nership in  the  freedom  of  its  seas.  Certainly  Japan 
should  not  turn  to  India  for  its  cotton  supplies  be- 
cause of  a  justified  suspicion  and  increasing  dislike 
of  Caucasian  methods  of  intercourse,  and  for  the 
gradually  forming  purpose  of  welding  an  empire  of 
unnumbered  brown  men  into  a  force  that  shall  strug- 
gle with  white  men.  **That  way  madness  lies." 
Let  history  enlighten  economics  with  the  torch  of  the 
past,  so  that  history  may  hereafter  yield  an  interpre- 
tation of  intelligence.  Crass  individualism  must 
make  room  for  the  sanity  of  cooperative  service. 
The  law  of  differentiation  must  be  made  whole  and 
wholesome  by  its  junction  with  the  law  of  unitation 
if  man  is  to  live  and  thrive. 

The  economic  interpretation  of  history,  a  nascent 
science,  will  have  justified  its  birthright  should  it  suc- 
ceed, by  the  addition  of  a  single  note  to  Nature's 
*' thousand  voices,"  in  piercing  the  heedless  ear  of 
man  with  the  law  which,  elsewhere  universally 
prevalent,  must  govern  his  social  theory.  It  is  the 
poets,  after  all,  who  see  most  deeply  into  life. 
Henry  Timrod,  the  poet  of  the  cotton  boll,  drew 
from  its  "cloven  sheath"  a  vision  of 

That  mighty  commerce  which,  confined 

To  the  mean  channels  of  no  selfish  mart, 

Goes  out  to  every  shore 

Of  this  broad  earth,  and  throngs  the  sea  with  ships 

That  bear  no  thunders;  hushes  hungry  lips 

In  alien  lands; 

Joins  with  a  delicate  web  remotest  strands;  .  .  . 

And  haply,  as  the  years  increase, 

Shall,  working  with  its  humbler  reach 


EVOLUTION  AND  HUMAN  WELFAEE     395 

With  that  large  wisdom  which  the  ages  teach, 
Revive  the  half -dead  dream  of  universal  peace  P'  .  .  . 

13  Henry  Timrod,   "The   Cotton   Boll"    (written  about   1869)    in 
Poems:  Boston,  1899,  p.  10.    Adapted. 


APPENDIXES 

A.  Cotton  and  the  Balance  of  Trade 

B.  The  Fable  of  Ajrachne  and  Minerva 

C.  The  Kev.  John  Dyer  and  *'The  Fleece" 

D.  Tom  Moore  on  Cotton  and  Corn 

E.  Notes  for  Webster's  Speech  of  1850 

F.  Illustrative  Statistics 

G.  Authorities 


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400  APPENDIX  A 

The  foregoing  figures  will  make  clear  the  following  im- 
portant facts  not  generally  understood: 

1.  That  during  the  past  five  years  a  total  foreign  trade 
of  over  nineteen  billions  of  dollars  has  been  "cleared"  by 
the  shipment  back  and  forth  of  only  $220,577,952  worth 
of  gold  and  silver ;- which  means  that  hardly  more  than 
one  per  cent  of  the  balances  arising  from  this  enormous 
commerce  have  been  settled  in  cash  or  bullion. 

2.  That  during  the  same  five  years  the 
trade  balance  in  favor  of  the  United  States 

(including  gold  and  silver)  aggregates $2,573,011,666 

and  that  during  the  same  period  the  total 

value  of  raw  cotton  exported  was 2,759,447,880 

3.  That  for  the  past  five  years  the  average 
annual  balance  of  trade  in  favor  of  the 
United  Staes  (including  gold  and  silver)  has 

been  514,602,333 

and  that  the  average  value  of  the  raw  cotton 

exported  has  been 551,889,576 

The    sequence    of    these    statements   will 
make  it  plain  that  our  annual  payments  in 
merchandise,  gold,  and  silver  to  foreign  coun- 
tries exceed  their  payments  to  us  in  kind  by    $514,602,333 
and  that  since  the  value  of  our  cotton  exports  exceeds  this 
sum  it  is  accurate  to  say  that  "our  debts  are  paid  in  cot- 
ton." 

These  who  have  studied  the  subject  closely 
estimate  that  this  annual  balance  in  our 

favor  of ,  say $500,000,000 

is  applied  to  the  liquidation  of  the  following 

debits : 
Interest  at  five  per  cent  in  a 
principal  of  $4,000,000,000, 
being  the  normal  value  of 
American  stocks,  bonds,  and 
other  evidences  of  American 

debt  held  abroad $200,000,000 

Spent  in  Europe  annually  by 
Americans  resident  or  travel- 
ing abroad  100,000,000 

Remitted  out  of  their  earnings 


APPENDIX  A  401 

by    Europeans    resident    in 

America    100,000,000 

Insurance  and  freights 100,000,000    $500,000,000 

These  figures  are  of  course  conjectural,  but  it  is  evident 
that,  if  any  of  the  items  are  underestimated,  American  in- 
debtedness abroad  unpaid  must  be  increased  by  the  amount 
of  such  underestimate,  for  our  payments  cannot  exceed  the 
net  balance  of  trade  in  our  favor,  known  and  ascertained  to 
be  about  $500,000,000  a  year. 

— Theodore  H,  Price  in  the  Outlook:  New  York,  Sep, 
9,  1914. 


APPENDIX  B 

THE  FABLE  OF  ARACHNE  AND  MINERVA  x 

(See  page  44) 

One  of  the  most  engaging  passages  in  Ovid's  "Meta- 
morphoses" describes  the  fabled  tilt  between  Pallas  and 
Arachne.  The  Maeonian  maiden  wrought  one  day  at  her 
loom  with  such  superhuman  skill  that  the  nymphs  and 
naiads  who  were  watching  swore  that  Minerva  herself 
must  have  taught  her.  Arachne,  flushed  with  pride,  not 
only  denied  this,  but  contemptuously  offered  to  engage  in 
a  weaving  contest  with  the  goddess  of  weaving  herself. 

"Let  her  come" — she  cried — "and  try 
With  me  her  skill, — and,  if  she  conquer,  mine 
Be  then  what  doom  she  will!"  and  Pallas  came. 
— The  looms  were  set, — the  webs 
Were  hung:   beneath  their  fingers,  nimbly  plied, 
The  subtle  fabrics  grew,  and  warp  and  woof. 
Transverse,  with  shuttle  and  with  slay  compact 
Were  pressed  in  order  fair.     And  either  girt 
Her  mantle  close,  and  eager  wrought;  the  toil 
Itself  was  pleasure  to  the  skilful  hands 
That  knew  so  well  their  task. 

The  graceful  poetry  of  Ovid  portrays  the  successive 
tapestries  wrought  in  this  mythical  contest.  One  antique 
fable  and  then  another  sprang  from  the  nimble  fingers  of 
Arachne  and  grew  beneath  the  deft  hands  of  the  goddess; 
until  at  length  Pallas,  suddenly  jealous  of  her  rival's 
handiwork,  "fierce  tore  the  web;"  and  then  "upon  her 
brows  the  maid  she  struck,  twelve  times." 

1  The  Metamorphoses  of  Publius  Ovidius  Naso,  translated  by 
Henry  King:     Edinburgh,  1871;  bk.  vi,  1. 

402 


APPENDIX  B  403 

— ^The  high-souled  Maid 
Such  insult  not  endured,  and  round  her  neck 
Indignant  twined  the  suicidal  noose. 
And  so  had  died.     But,  as  she  hung,  some  ruth 
Stirred  in  Minerva's  breast: — the  pendent  form 
She  raised,  and  "Live!"  she  said — "but  hang  thou  still 
Forever,  wretch!   and  through  all  future  time 
Even  to  thy  latest  race  bequeath  thy  doom!" 
And,  as  she  parted,  sprinkled  her  with  juice 
Of  aconite.    With  venom  of  that  drug 
Infected  dropped  her  tresses, — ^nose  and  ear 
Were  lost; — her  form,  to  smallest  bulk  compressed, 
A  head  minutest  crowned;  to  slenderest  legs. 
Jointed  on  either  side,  her  fingers  changed: 
Her  body  but  a  bag,  whence  still  she  draws 
Her  filmy  threads,  and,  with  her  ancient  art. 
Weaves  the  fine  meshes  of  her  spider's  web. 

Such  is  the  hoary  myth  of  the  origin  of  the  spider,  deft- 
est of  weavers,  whose  family  are  called  the  Arachnida  in 
tribute  to  the  beautiful  early  poetry  of  our  race. 


APPENDIX  0 

THE  EEV.  JOHN  DYER  AND  "THE  FLEECE" 
(See  page  60) 

An  English  clergyman  and  a  poet  of  considerable  taste 
and  ability,  Dyer's  attention  was  attracted,  like  that  of  the 
later  clergyman,  Cartwright,  to  the  fascinating  subject  of 
the  loom ;  so  that  in  1757  he  published  in  London  his  versi- 
fied eulogium  of  "The  Fleece."  This  was  just  at  the 
commencement  of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  when  delicate 
and  strange  cotton  fabrics  from  India  were  beginning  to 
unsettle  the  complacent  British  industry  in  wool;  and 
Dyer,  like  Daniel  Defoe,  writes  as  a  partizan  of  the  wool- 
sack. Extremely  quaint,  in  these  days,  seems  his  jealous 
poetic  fling  at  flax  and  silk,  but  more  especially  at  the  up- 
start rival  from  the  Ganges: 

Our  happy  swains 
Behold  arising,  in  their  fatt'ning  flocks, 
A  double  wealth;  more  rich  than  Belgium's  boast. 
Who  tends  the  culture  of  the  flaxen  reed; 
Or  the  Cathayan's,  whose  ignobler  care 
Nurses  the  silkworm;  or  of  India's  sons, 
Who  plant  the  cotton-grove  by  Ganges'  stream. 
Nor  do  their  toils  and  products  furnish  more, 
Than  gauds  and  dresses,  of  fantastic  web. 
To  the  luxurious:  but  our  kinder  toils 
Give  cloathing  to  necessity;  keep  warm 
Th'  unhappy  wand'rer,  on  the  mountain  wild 
Benighted,  while  the  tempest  beats  around. 
No,  ye  soft  sons  of  Ganges,  and  of  Ind, 
Ye  feebly  delicate,  life  little  needs 
Your  fem'nine  toys,  nor  asks  your  nerveless  arm 
To  cast  the  strong-flung  shuttle,  or  the  spear. 

Dyer  lived  late  enough  to  witness  and  describe  the 
operation  of  the  very  first  in  the  series  of  wonderful  in- 

404 


APPENDIX  C  405 

ventions  that  were  destined  to  revolutionize  England — the 
spinning-frames  of  Wyatt  and  Paul — although  his  enthu- 
siasm arose  from  their  efficiency  in  the  manufacture  of 
wool.  If  we  imagine  ourselves  to  be  passing  with  the  poet 
through  one  of  the  earliest  of  British  factories, — 

— We  next  are  shown 
A  circular  machine,  of  new  design, 
In  conic  shape:  it  draws  and  spins  a  thread 
Without  the  tedious  toil  of  needless  hands. 
A  wheel,  invisible,  beneath  the  floor. 
To  ev'ry  member  of  th*  harmonious  frame 
Givej  necessary  motion.     One,  intent. 
O'er  looks  the  work:  the  carded  wool,  he  says, 
Is  smoothly  lapp'd  around  those  cylinders, 
Which,  gently  turning,  yield  it  to  yon  cirque 
Of  upright  spindles,  which,  with  rapid  whirl, 
Spin  out,  in  long  extent,  an  even  twine. 


APPENDIX  D 

TOM  MOORE  ON  COTTON  AND  CORNi 
(See  page  91) 

This  whimsical  poem  by  Thomas  Moore,  written  in  an- 
ticipation of  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  indicates  the 
influence  of  cotton  in  the  English  politics  of  the  period: 

Said  Cotton  to  Com,  t'other  day. 

As  they  met,  and  exchanged  a  salute — 
(Squire  Corn  in  his  cabriolet, 

Poor  Cotton,  half  famish'd,  on  foot) 

"Great  squire,  if  it  isn't  uncivil 

To  hint  at  starvation  before  you. 
Look  down  on  a  hungry  poor  devil. 

And  give  him  some  bread,  I  implore  you!" 

Quoth  Corn  then,  in  answer  to  Cotton, 

Perceiving  he  meant  to  make  free, — 
"Low  fellow,  you've  surely  forgotten 

The  distance  between  you  and  me! 

"To  expect  that  we,  peers  of  high  birth, 

Should  waste  our  illustrious  acres 
For  no  other  purpose  on  earth 

Than  to  fatten  curst  calico-makers! — 

"That  bishops  to  bobbins  should  bend, — 
Should  stoop  from  their  bench's  sublimity 

Great  dealers  in  lawn,  to  befriend 
Your  contemptible  dealers  in  dimity! 

"No — vile  manufacturer!  ne'er  harbor 

A  hope  to  be  fed  at  our  boards; 
Base  oflFspring  of  Arkwright,  the  barber. 

What  claim  canst  thou  have  upon  lords? 

IT.  Moore,  Poetical  Works:     Philadelphia.     1856. 

406 


APPENDIX  D  407 


"No — thanks  to  the  taxes  and  debt. 
And  the  triumph  of  paper  o'er  guineas. 

Our  race  of  Lord  Jemmys,  as  yet, 

May  defy  your  whole  rabble  of  Jennys  I'* 

So  saying,  whip,  crack,  and  away 

Went  Corn  in  his  cab  through  the  throng. 

So  madly,  I  heard  them  all  say 
Squire  Com  would  be  doton,  before  long. 


APPENDIX  E 

NOTES  FOR  WEBSTER'S  SPEECH  OF  MARCH  7,  1850 1 

(See  page  215) 

Causes  which  have  so  suddenly  produced  this  state  of 

things — 
War  declared  May  '46 — 

Armies  over  run  Mexico — &  seized  her  Capitol — 
Navy  seized  her  ports — 

— Feb.  48.    Treaty — &  cession  of  her  Provinces — 
— 9000  miles  of  coast  on  Pacific. 
— Revolution  in  California,  mean  while,  July  1846 
— Col  Fremont 

Soon  as  war  known,  U.  S.  flag  hoisted — 
Great  numbers  rushed  to  Mexico,  in  '46.  '47 — 
In  Jan.  48  Mormons  discov*^.  gold — 

Same  winter,  or  Sp'g,  Sutters  &  Marshall's  discoveries. 
In  May  '48 — digging  commenced. 
— Success  incredible.     Larkins  Letters,  June  1.  &  28 

Col  Masons  Rep*  Aug.  17.  48 
On  the  peace,  a  new  rush — 
1000  large  vessels — 70,000  passengers 
Amt.  of  gold  remitted — &  amt.  merchandize 
vid  Aspinwall — 6  Steamers — 4  or  5  small  ones 
— Trade  &  revenue.  15  millions  of  Gold  to 

Congress  passed  no  law  U.  S.  &  England 

2  or  3  to  Oregon — 
— a  great  deal  used  at  home 
California  called  a  Convention — Formed  a  Free  Consti- 
tution.— 
chosen  Senators  and  members 
of  Congress 
&  now  asks  for  admission. 

1  From  the  original  manuscript,  in  Mr,  Webster's  handwriting,  in 
the  New  Hampshire  Historical  Society. 

408 


APPENDIX  E  409 

— Her  Constitution  excludes  Slavery —  ^ 

— War  waged  for  Territory — expected  to  be  Slave  Terri- 
tory— 

Events  have  decided  the  matter  otherwise  &  hence  the 
present  controversy,  &  the  present  excitement.^ 

Slavery 

The  North  regards  it  as  a  great  moral  &  political  evil, 

&,  in  its  nature,  founded  in  wrong. 

Slavery  has  existed  from  the  earliest  times. 

Oriental,  Jewish,  Greek.     Roman.    Feudal  Servitude 

There  is  no  positive  injunction  ag*  it,  in  the  old  Testamt 
or  the  new. 

The  theocracy  of  the  Jews  tolerated  it 

^The  religion  of  the  Gospel  deals  little  with  political  rela- 
tions of  men. 

— The  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  are  addressed  to  the 
hearts  &  consciences  of  individual  men. 

— They  seek  to  purify  the  soul,  &  to  regulate  the  life 

But  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  principle  of  Slavery  is 
opposed,  in  the  abstract  to  the  meek  spirit  of  the  Gos- 
pel.    It  is  founded  in  the  power  of  the  strongest. 

It  is  conquest,  a  permanent  conquest  of  man  over  man. 

It  is  against  the  law  of  nature. 

It  is  like  unjust  war,  or  any  other  form  of  oppression  or 
subjegation 

These  are  the  sentiments  of  the  North. 

It  is  probable  many  in  the  South  are  hardly  prepared  to 

deny  these  truths  in  the  abstract 

— But,  in  general,  they  are  accustomed  to  it;  born  &  bred 
where  it  exists,  &  taught  to  consider  it  as  no  wrong. 

And  they  are  honest,  &  conscientious,  in  this. 

No  doubt,  there  are  thousands  of  men,  deeply  religious,  & 
whose  consciences  are  as  tender  as  those  of  any  other 
Christians,  see  no  way  for  them  but  to  treat  their 
slaves  with  kindness  &  humanity 

2  All  of  the  foregoing  notes  are  on  one  leaf,  endorsed  on  the  back 
by  Mr.  Webster,  "History  of  Events  that  have  produced  the  present 
state  of  things." 


410  APPENDIX  E 

They  are  far  from  thinking,  that  in  all  cases  manumission 
would  be  useful  to  the  Slaves  themselves — 

The    Methodist    Church    equally    conscientious    in    both 
branches. 

I  have  read  their  proceedings,  &  lamented  the  result. 

When  religious  excitement  takes  place,  men  run  to  ex- 
tremes— 
Algebra 

Absolutists.    Fault  finders  with  the  sun. 

Impatient  waiters  on  Providence 

They  do  not  enough  heed  St.  Paul. 

=Mr.  Butler — War-horse! 

=They  think  they  can  draw  light  from  angry  clouds — 

— They  want  candor,  &  charity 

And  not  willing  to  leave  things  with  him,  who  sees  the 

end  from  the  beginning. 
How   Slavery  was   considered,   in   1789;   &   reason   of 

changes 

In  1789,  when  Constitution  adopted,  everybody  regarded 
Slavery  as  a  great  evil. 
The  sentiment  stronger  in  the   South,  or  oftener  ex- 
pressed, because  the  South  had  more  of  it. 

It  is  called  now,  an  "Institution,"  a  "good,"  a  "bless- 
ing," a  "Religious,  moral,  &  social  blessing" — 

Then  it  was  denominated  a  "blight,"  a  "blast,"  a  "mil- 
dew," "a  curse" — 

Mr.  Campbell's  speech. — see  his  extracts 

The  Ordinance  of  1787 — all  the  South  agreed  to  it 

Contemporaneous  with  the  Constitution 

I  honor  the  liberality  of  Va — 

80  millions  of  Dollars 

The  true  is  that  in  Aug.  87.    v.  Association  of  1774 

1.  Provision  was  made  for  limiting  the  importation  of 
slaves,  &  it  was  believed  that  Slavery  would  gradu- 
ally die  out.  Mr.  Madison  &  others  thought  the  time 
allowed  too  long. 

2.  That  the  Prohibition  should  be  laid  on  all  the  Terri- 
tory— Mr.  Madison's  reason  for  omitting  the  word. 


APPENDIX  E  411 

3.  Slavery  as  it  existed  in  the  States,  should  not  be  in- 
terfered with — 
In  the  first  Congress,  this  was  all  reaffirmed,  as  I  have 
stated  Before — 

*^  The  whole  Country  unanimous,  in  all  this. 
But  now:  What  has  caused  the  change? 
In  the  North  a  stronger  religious  feeling,  &  a  horror  at 
seeing 
Slavery  increase — 
In  the  South,  Cotton — 

In  1790-91,  &e— Cotton  hardly  exported— vid  Tables 
— Sudden  growth  of  this  created  eagerness  for  acquisition 
of  Slave  Territory — 

Cession  of  Georgia 1802 

Louisiana —  1803 

Florida—  1804. 

And  Finally  Texas 
This,  the  great  Consummation. 
And  now  my  Gen^  proposition: 

"There  is  not  a  foot  of  land,  in  any  State  or  Territory  of 
the  U.  S.  the  character  of  which  as  to  free  soil  or  slave 
soil  by  some  Law — 
1st  as  to  Texas,  read  the  clause  of  the  2.  Resolution — 
read  it 
Now,  what  is  to  be  said  ag*  this? 
Nothing  can  be  stronger 

Mr.  Bell's  first  Resolution  adds  noth'g  to  it — and, 
looking  to  the  difficulties  of  getting  any  prospective 
Resolution  thro*  the  House,  I  think  it  best  to  adhere 
to  practical  measures  &  make  no  resolutions  for  the 
future — 

— I  am  obliged  to  Mr.  Clay — &  Mr.  Bell — 
But,  referring  to  the  difficulties  of  the  case,  I  prefer 
to  follow  the  Presidents  recommendation. 
But  now  Texas  was  brought  in  by  Northern  &  New 
England  votes — in  both — 
But  for  these  votes,  she  must  have  staid  out. 


412  APPENDIX  E 

New  England  could  have  kept  her  out — ^but  N.  E. 
thought  her — 

Con:  N.  H.  &  Maine.    And  New  York. — 
Mr.   Dix — &   Mr.    Niles. — voted   for   Texas,   &   then 
turned  Free  Sailers — 

If  they  were  here  now,  could  they  apply  Wilmotf 
It  would  be  a  violation  of  law  &  faith — 
They  helped  to  bring  in  every  foot  of  Slave  Territory 
this  side  the  Rio  Grande — & 
Then  turned  Free  S oilers — 

Then  set  up  the  symbol — the  empty  symbol  of  the 
Wilmot  Proviso. 

— as  a  Gentleman  careless  of  his  stables.  &c — 
This  matter  is  now  absolutely  settled  hy  Law 
So  much  for  Texas  My  Previous  Votes — 

Vid  next  sheet — page  2' 
(Here  there  is  a  four  page  sheet  in  another  hand,  as  fol- 
lows:) 
Speech  at  Niblo's  Garden.    1837 

On  Admission  of  Texas.    1845. 
Three  Million  Bill  Mar.  1st  1847. 
Springfield— Sept.  27—1847. 
In  Senate— Mar.  23.  1848. 
Oregon  Bill  Aug.  12.  1848. 
Now  as  for  California  <&  New  Mexico 

This  is  all  Free  Country  by  the  Ordinance  of  Nature. 
There  is  no  slave  there,  in  our  sense  of  that  word,  &  never 
can  be — 

It  is  an  Asiatic  formation,  &  Slavery — 
Immense  Mountains,  &  deep  vallies — 
Especially  New  Mexico 

— Mountains  with  white  tops — parched  vallies — no  culture 
hut  hy  Irrigation 
"Wilmot,  here,  would  be  perfectly  without  effect. 

8  The  notes  from  the  lines  "How  Slavery  was  considered  in  1789 
&  reason  of  changes,"  down  to  this  point,  are  on  one  sheet,  endorsed 
by  Mr.  Webster:  "No.  3.  How  Slavery  was  considered  in  89 — & 
Acquisition  of  Texas." 


APPENDIX  E  413 

Inquire  of  the  California  Senators — &  members — 
— Inquire  of  any  Body — 

It  is  a  point  of  honor  with  the  South — 

I  do  not  wish  to  show  force,  merely  would  this  point  of 
honor 

1  follow  the  example  of  Mr.  Polk,  in  Oregon 
My  proposition  then  is  proved 

1.  As  to  Texas 

2.  As  to  California  &  New  Mexico — 
Then  what  is  the  value  of  Wilmot — 
I  wish  to  be  distinct — 

I  shall  not  vote  for  Wilmot,  in  New  Mexico — 
Nor  in  Texas. 
As  to  Texas,  I  will  not  violate  faith,  &  repeal  the  Law 

of  Congress — 
As  to  New  Mexico  &  California — 

I  will  not  reaffirm  an  Ordinance  of  Nature  or  attempt  to 
reenaet  the  Will  of  God.* 

*  The  notes  from  the  line  "Now  o«  for  California  and  New  Mecoico," 
to  this  point  are  on  one  sheet,  endorsed  on  the  back,  in  Mr.  Webster's 
handwriting,  "No.  5.     California  &  New  Mexico." 

All  of  the  above  notes,  including  footnotes,  are  copied  from  Web- 
ster's Writings  and  Speeches:  Boston,  1903;  vol.  x,  Appendix. 


APPENDIX  F 

nXTJSTEATIVE  STATISTICS 

1.  England 


a.  A  Century  of  Grovrth 


THE  RELATION  OF  INVENTIONS  TO   COTTON  IMPORTS  AND 
EXPORTS  ^ 

(See  page  88) 


Volume  of  Value  of 

Ootton  Imported      Cottons  Exported 

1730 


1,545,472  lbs. 

£13,524 

1741 

1,645,031  lbs. 

£20,709 

1764 

3,870,392  lbs. 

£200,354 

1766 

4,767,589  lbs. 

£220,759 

(estimated) 

1780 

6,766,613  lbs. 

£355,060 

( estimated ) 

1785 

18,400,384  lbs. 

£864,710 

1793 

19,040,929  lbs. 

£1,733,807 

1813 

50,966,000  lbs. 

£17,655,378 

( 

estimated) 

1830 

261,200,000  lbs. 

£41,050,969 

1832 

287,800,000  lbs. 

£43,786,255 

InTentions 

1730  Wyatt's Roller-Spinning  (pat. 

1738) 
1738  Kay's  Fly-Shuttle 

1764  Hargreaves's  Spinning-jenny, 
for  weft  only    (pat.  1770) 

1768  Arkwright's  Spinning- Frame, 
for  warp   (pat.   1769) 

1779  Crompton's  Mule — finer  and 
more  even  yarn 

1785  Cartwright's  Power -Loom; 
Watt  &  Boulton's  Steam  En- 
gine used 

1793  Eli  Whitney's  Cotton  Oin 

1813  Horrock's  Dressing   Machine 


1830  The  "Throstle"— used  almost 
exclusively  in  England  for 
spinning  warp 

1832  Robert's  self-acting  Mule 
perfected 


1  Tables  based  on  Baines  and  Hobson,  as  cited. 

414 


STATISTICS 


415 


b.  The  Growth  of  Population^ 
1751-1821 

(See  page  90) 

Increases  of  Population  in  each  10  years 

Maximum  for  any  decade  prior  to  1751 3% 

1751-1761 6% 

1761-1771  6% 

1771-1781   6% 

1781-1791 9% 

1791-1801  11% 

1801-1811  14% 

1811-1821  (Greatest  recorded)   18% 


c.  The  Change  of  Occupation^ 

1811-1821,  in  every  10,000: 

(See  page  90) 


Agriculture 
934 
decrease 

Professions,  etc. 

600 

increase 

Manufacture 

272 

increase 

For   present   condition    of   Manufacture    in    England,    see    'The 
World's   Cotton   Spindles,"  p.   424;    and  Chapter   70,   p.   349,  note. 


2  See  Toynbee,  as  cited,  p.  67. 
sGaskell,  as  cited,  p.  198. 


416 


APPENDIX  F 


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STATISTICS 


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418 


APPENDIX  F 


b.  Exports  of  North  and  South  Just  Before  the  War* 

(See  page  240) 

Summary  Statement  of  the  Value  of  Exports  of  the  Growth,  Prod- 
uce, and  Manufacture  of  the  United  States,  for  the  Year  End- 
ing June  30,  1859;  the  Productions  of  the  North  and  of  the 
South,  Respectively,  Being  Placed  in  Opposite  Columns;  and  the 
Articles  of  a  Mixed  Origin  Being  Stated  Separately. — Report  on 
Com.  and  Nav.,  1859. 


EXPOBTS    OF    THE    NORTH 
PBODUCT   OF   THE   FOREST 

Wood  and  its  products  $7,829,660 

Ashes,  pot  and  pearl  . .      643,861 

Ginsenjij     54,204 

Skins  and  furs 1,361,352 

PRODUCT   OF   AGRICULTURE 

Animals      and      their 

products    15,262,769 

Wheat  and  wheat  flour  15,113,455 

Indian  corn  and  meal    2,206,390 
Other    grains,    biscuit, 

and  vegetables 2,226,585 

Hemp,  and  Clover  seed      546,000 

Flax  seed   8,177 

Hops    53,016 

$45,305,541 


Exports  of  the  South 

PRODUCT   OF   the   FOREST 

Wood    and    its    prod- 
ucts      $2,210,884 

Tar  and  pitch  141,058 

Rosin  and  turpentine  2,248,381 

Spirits  of  turpentine  1,306,035 

PRODUCT    OF    agriculture 

Animals     and     their 

products    287,048 

Wlieat      and      wheat 

flour     2,169,328 

Indian  corn  and  meal  110,976 
Biscuit  or  ship  bread  12,864 

Rice     2,207,148 

Cotton     161,434,923 

Tobacco,  in  leaf   21,074,038 

Brown  sugar  196,935 

$193,399,618 


Aeticles  of  Mixed  Obigiit 

Refined  sugar,  wax,  chocolate,  molasses    $  650,937 

Spirituous  liquors,  ale,  porter,  beer,  cider,  vinegar,  lin- 
seed oil   1,370,787 

Household  furniture,  carriages,  rail-road  cars,  etc 1,722,797 

Hats,  fur,  silk,  palm  leaf,  saddlery,  trimks,  valises....  317,727 

Tobacco,   manufactured  and  snuff    3,402,491 

Gunpowder,  leather,  boots,  shoes,  cables,  cordage 2,011,931 

Salt,  lead,  iron  and  its  manufactures  5,744,952 

Copper  and  brass,  and  manufactures  of  1,048,246 

Drugs  and  medicines,  candles  and  soap    1,933,973 

Cotton  fabrics  of  all  kinds  8,316,222 

Other  products  of  manufactures  and  mechanics  3,852,910 

Coal  and  ice    818,117 

Products   not    enumerated    4,132,857 


*From  Christy,  p.  267. 


STATISTICS 


419 


Gold  and  silver,  in  coin  and  bullion   57,502,305 

Products  of  the  sea,  being  oil,  fish,  whalebone,  etc 4,462,974 

$97,189,226 

Add   Northern   exports    45,305,541 

Add    Southern    exports     193,399,618 

Total    exports    $335,894,385 

Explanatory  Note. — The  whole  of  the  exports  from  the  ports 
of  Delaware,  Baltimore,  and  New  Orleans,  are  placed  in  the  column 
of  Northern  exports,  because  there  is  no  means  of  determining 
what  proportion  of  them  were  from  free  or  slave  States,  and  it 
has  been  thought  best  to  give  this  advantage  to  the  North.  Tak- 
ing into  the  account  only  the  heavier  amounts,  the  exports  from 
these  ports  foot  up  $11,287,898;  of  which  near  one-half  consisted 
of  provisions  and  lumber.  The  total  imports  for  the  year  were 
$338,768,130.  Of  this  $20,895,077  were  re-exported,  which,  added 
to  the  domestic  exports,  makes  the  total  exports  $356,789,462, 
thus  leaving  a  balance  in  our  favor  of  $18,021,332. 

For  Table  showing  Cotton  Manufacture  since  the  Civil  War, 
see  Chapter  70. 


c.  Production  and  Exports  of  Raw  Cotton,  1790-1914^ 


(J      Equivalent 

f3      Equivalent 

.2      SOOpound     ^ 

.2       500-pound      .g 

Yeab. 

g      bales,  gross      ® 

Yeab. 

§      bales,  gross      g 

1         weight.         « 

"S         weight.         ^ 

Pu           Bales: 

f^          Bales: 

'                                          ' 

1914    

16,134,930 

8,931,253 

1901    .... 

9,509,745 

6,870,313 

1913    .... 

14,156,486 

9,250,028 

1900    .... 

10,123,027 

6,806,572 

1912    .... 

13,703,421 

9,199,093 

1899    

9,345,391 

6,167,623 

1911    .... 

15,692,701 

10,681,332 

1898    

11,435,368 

7,626,525 

1910    .... 

11,608,616 

8,025,991 

1897    .... 

10,985.040 

7,811,031 

1909    

10,004,949 

6,491,843 

1896    

8,515,640 

6,124,026 

1908    

13,241,799 

8,889,724 

1895    .... 

7,146,772 

4,761,505 

1907    .... 

11,107,179 

7,779,508 

1894    .... 

10.025.534 

6,961,372 

1906    .... 

13,273,809 

8,825,236 

1893    

7,433,056 

5,307,295 

1905    .... 

10,575.017 

6,975,494 

1892    .... 

6,658,313 

4,485,251 

1904   .... 

13,438,012 

9,057,397 

1891    .... 

8,940,867 

5,896,800 

1903    .... 

9,851,129 

6,233,682 

1890    .... 

8,562.089 

5,850,219 

1902    

10,630.945 

6,913,506 

1889    .... 

7,472.511 

4,928,921 

5  Bulletin  No.  131,  Dept.  of  Commerce:     Washington,  1915;  p.  82. 


420 


APPENDIX  F 


jj    Equivalent 

jj    Equivalent 

.°        500-pound   2 

.2    600-pound   j2 

Ytm. 

g   bales,  gross   §_ 
1          ^^''^^^    t3 

Year. 

1   bales. 
"S     wei 

gross   g^ 
ght    ^ 

^           Bales: 

^          Bales: 

'                 * 

' 

1888  .... 

6,923,775 

4,730,192 

1844  .... 

2,078,910 

1,745,812 

1887  .... 

6,884,667 

4,519,254 

1843  .... 

1,750,060 

1,327,267 

1886  .... 

6,314,561 

4,301,542 

1842  .... 

2,035,481 

1,584,594 

1885  .... 

6,369,341 

4,200,651 

1841  .... 

1,398,282 

1,169,434 

1884  .... 

5,477,448 

3,783,319 

1840  .... 

1,347,640 

1,060,408 

1883  .... 

5,521,963 

3,733,369 

1839  .... 

1,653,722 

1,487,882 

1882  .... 

6,833,442 

4,591,331 

1838  .... 

1,092,980 

827,248 

1881  .... 

5,136,447 

3,376,521 

1837  .... 

1,428,384 

1.191,905 

1880  .... 

6,356,998 

4,453,495 

1836  .... 

1,129,016 

888,423 

1879  .... 

5,466,387 

3,742,752 

1835  .... 

1,061,821 

847,263 

1878  .... 

4,745,078 

3,290,167 

1834  

962,343 

774,718 

1877  .... 

4,494,224 

3,197,439 

1833  .... 

930,962 

769,436 

1876  .... 

4,118,390 

2,839,418 

1832  .... 

815,900 

649,397 

1875  .... 

4,302.818 

3,037,650 

1831  .... 

805.439 

644,430 

1874  .... 

3,528,276 

2,504,118 

1830  .... 

732,218 

553,960 

1873  .... 

3,873,750 

2,682,631 

1829  .... 

763,598 

596,918 

1872  .... 

3,650,932 

2,470,590 

1828  .... 

679,916 

529,674 

1871  .... 

1  2,756,564 

1,824,937 

1827  .... 

564,854 

421,181 

1870  .... 

4,024,527 

2,922,757 

1826  .... 

732,218 

1   688,620 

1869  .... 

2,409,597 

1,987,708 

1825  .... 

533,473 

409,071 

1868  .... 

2,198,141 

1,300,449 

1824  .... 

449,791 

352,900 

1867  .... 

2,345,610 

1,502,756 

1823  .... 

387,029 

286,739 

1866  .... 

1,948,077 

1,401,697 

1822  .... 

439,331 

347,447 

1865  .... 

2,093,658 

1,301,146 

1821  .... 

376,569 

289,350 

1864  .... 

:   299,372 

17,789 

1820  .... 

334,728 

249,787 

1863  .... 

;   449,059 

23,998 

1819  .... 

349,372 

255,720 

1862  .... 

1,596,653 

1   22,770 

1818  .... 

261,506 

175,994 

1861  .... 

4,490,586 

10,129 

1817  .... 

271,967 

184,942 

1860  .... 

3,841,416 

615,032 

1816  .... 

259,414 

171,299 

1859  .... 

4,309,642 

3,535,373 

1815  .... 

209,205 

163,894 

1858  .... 

3,758,273 

2,772,937 

1814  .... 

146,444 

165,997 

1857  .... 

3,012,016 

2,237,248 

1813  .... 

156,904 

35,458 

1856  .... 

1  2,873,680 

2,096,565 

1812  .... 

156,904 

38,220 

1855  .... 

3,220,782 

2,702,863 

1811  .... 

167,364 

57,775 

1854  .... 

2,708,082 

2,016,849 

1810  .... 

177,824 

124,116 

1853  .... 

2,766,194 

•  1,975,666 

1809  .... 

171,548 

186,523 

1852  .... 

3,130,338 

2,223,141 

1808  

156,904 

101,981 

1851  .... 

2,799,290 

2,186,461 

1807  .... 

167,364 

21,261 

1850  .... 

2,136,083 

1,854,474 

1806  .... 

167,364 

127,889 

1849  .... 

1,975,274 

1,270,763 

1805  

146,444 

71,315 

1848  .... 

2,615,031 

2,053,204 

1804  .... 

135,983 

76,780 

1847  .... 

2,128,433 

1,628,549 

1803  .... 

125,523 

70,068 

1846  .... 

1,603,763 

1,054,440 

1802  

115,063 

75,424 

1845  .... 

1,806.110 

1,095,116 

1801  .... 

100,418 

47,768 

STATISTICS 


421 


a        Equivalent 

a        Equivalent 

■O        500-pound       t! 

•H        600-pound 

r 

YF.AB. 

3       bales,  gross      §. 
o            weight          (3 

Bales: 

Ykab. 

s       bales,  gross 
g           weight 

Bales: 

K 

■• 

1800   .... 

73,222 

41,822 

1794   .... 

16,736 

9,414 

1799    .... 

41,841 

35,580 

1793    .... 

10,460 

3,565 

1798   .... 

31,381 

19,065 

1792   .... 

6,276 

1,097 

1797   .... 

23,013 

18,720 

1791    .... 

4,184 

277 

1796   .... 

20,921 

7,577 

1790  .... 

3,138 

379 

1795   .... 

16,736 

12,213 

d.  Value  of  Important  Agricultural  Exports,  1899-1914 

(000  omitted) 


1899        1904        1909        1912        1913        19U 


Vegetable 

Oils    

'Oil  Cake   .. 

Tobacco   

Corn  

Wheat  Flour 

Wheat    

Total  Grain 

Products    . . 
Cotton    


$13,809 
14,548 
25,467 
68,977 
73,093 

104,269 

273,999 
210,080 


$12,618 
17,069 
29,640 
30,071 
68,894 
35,850 

76,215 
372,049 


$23,098 
25,836 
30,902 
25,194 
51,157 
68,094 


$26,908 
28,228 
43,251 
28,957 
50,999 
28,477 


160,076    123,095 
417,390    565,849 


$24,044 
29,444 
49,354 
28,801 
53,172 
89,036 

210,524 
547,357 


$16,251 
21,6687 
53,964 
7,008 
54,454 
87,953 

164,846 
610,475 


For  Table  showing  Cotton  Manufacture  since  the  Civil  War,  see 
Chapter  70. 


8  Year  Book,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture. 
1  Should  be  credited  to  Cotton. 


422 


!M>PENDIX  F 


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03  Oi  00  02  o 


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la  00— c  Tj< 

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m  w  1^  «5 

QO  OS  00  •* 


«0  CO  to  o 
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C^i^os  eo 
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o  us  t-  p 

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t^  us  Tf  00  00 

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■*  CO  eq— r 

N  n 


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^  00  ^  Irt 

CO  t^u;_  CO 
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OS  o  t-  us 

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eo  1-1  eo  o     eo  OS  t^  us 


CO  (M  eo  us 
c:  u:  OS  r-H 
C:^  C^  C^  OS^ 
i—'i-Tcs  eo 

1—1  OS  CO  CO 
pcO^Tt  O 

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rH  rt  ^  ^  i-i       POOO       O  O  OS  00 

ososososos     osososos     oosoooo 


STATISTICS 


423 


>H 

■«-s 

Oi 

7 

<N 

o 

Oi 

^ 

09 

3 

A 

0 

M 

V. 

p 

0 

^^ 

^ 

5S 

H 

0 
10 

1 

n 
^ 

. 

X 

CO 

^3 

T 

V. 

m 

0 

.a 

^ 

0 

« 

0 

r«e 

Eh 

^ 

% 

eo 

B 

*  l-H 


0000000 

0000000 
w  oeo  CO  0  eo  Tf 

CO  10  i-T  1-1' Ti<"  i-T  oT 

l-H                                      <M 

0  "-I  t^  »o  0  0  eo 
.-1  0  eo  —I  0  -"t  0 
0  (NO  0  Oeot>^ 

rt<  >0  1— I  rH  ■^  1— <  J>r 

14,129 
4,395 
1,507 
911 
3,931 
1,171 

26,044 

eo  00  10  10 1^  00  » 
TjH  00  00  t-  eo  10  00 
0  (N  •*  00  ■^0  F^ 
ecTcoi-^      eoi-Hco 

^                                 (N 

<N  eo  10  10  b- 1^  OS 

eo  10  — 1  OS  0  0  (M 

i-H  00  U5  00  ■*  OS  00 

©f  eoF-T      eo      c4" 

f-l                                 (N 

rH  00  0  0  i-<  0  «o 
10  ^  0  00  eo  W5  eo 
eo  t- 0  «o  »o  OS  10 
o'tiT,^      of      0 

i-H                                         Ol 

OS  ©]  0  00  eo  OS  r-i 
<N  OS  ic  OS  eo  ffl  t^ 
00  CO  i-H  CO  OS  0  01 
eoeo  rH      i-T      ©f 
«                        ©J 

(N  «N  t^  Tj<  »0  0  0 
00  O)  '^  CO  t^  »o  tH 

»0  rH  Tjt^CO  00  OS  CO_ 

i-Teoi-H               00 

F-l                                                         l-H 

rH  Tj<  0  OS  CO  t- t- 

u3  eo  OS  10  0  (M  CO 
10  os^eo  t^oo  0 -^ 

CO'^rH                 rH  ©f 
rH                                          ©] 

0  CO  ©]  Tj<  00  CO  CO 
(N  rH  OS  0  00  eo  10 
eoTi<^rH  cot-OS  (N 
i-Teor-T              oo 

rH                                         t-l 

b-  rH  eo  CO  CO  eo  CO 
w  OS  CO  eo  10  0  0 

t«  t- (N  >0  t-  00  t^ 

eoeo  rH               0 
ft                        ©) 

T(<  rH  (N  t—  0  rH  us 
eq   CO  0  »--  0  Ui  rH 

rH -<^eo  ■*  o^t-  0 
o'eor-T     r^     t-T 

rH                                         rH 

00  t-  00  <N  0  f-l  CO 
10  CO  CO  rfi  0  0  eo 
b- eo  rH^eo  c<j^oo  eo 

Oeo"  r-T        rH         jC 

America  . . 
India    .... 
Egypt     ... 
Russia   . . . 
China   .... 
Others    . . . 
Total    .. 

«! 

eo 

•a 

» 

>, 

Xt 

f^i 

at 

0 

10 

a 

a> 

CO 

9 

o. 

u 

^ 

•n 

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0 

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a 

-s 

oja 

N 

,0 

;:j 

a« 

424  [APPENDIX  F 

b.  The  World's  Cotton  Spindles  " 

Great  Britain  55,576,108 

United  States  30,579,000 

Germany    10,920,426 

Russia    8,950,000 

France    7,400,000 

India    6,400,000 

Austria    4,864,453 

Italy   4,580,000 

Mexico,  Brazil,  etc 3,100,000 

Japan    2,250,000 

Spain    2,200,000 

Belgium    1,468,838 

Switzerland 1,398,062 

Canada   855,293 

Sweden     529,772 

Portugal    482,000 

Holland    470,956 

Denmark    86,836 

Norway    74,564 

In  1909  Sir  Charles  Macara,  who  compiled  the  above 
table,  addressed  the  President  of  the  British  Board  of 
Trade  as  follows : 

"Lancashire,  the  center  of  the  cotton  industry  of  Eng- 
land, has  during  the  last  50  years  doubled  her  population; 
she  has  also  doubled  her  cotton  machinery,  considerably  im- 
proved its  eflSciency,  and  increased  the  speed  at  which  it  is 
run,  with  the  result  that  not  only  is  there  a  proportionately 
greater  output,  but  the  output  is  of  immensely  increased 
value.  The  importance  of  the  cotton  industry  of  England 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  its  products,  in  addition 
to  providing  for  our  home  requirements,  represent  about 
a  third  of  our  total  exports  of  manufactures. — These  ex- 
ports go  to  the  great  neutral  markets,  as  well  as  largely  to 
the  countries  which  have  a  cotton  industry  of  their  own, 
forming  part  of  their  exports. — In  round  figures,  the  cot- 
ton crop  of  the  world  now  averages  about  20,000,000  bales, 
and  a  common  fallacy  is  to  gauge  the  value  of  the  cotton 
industry  by  the  weight  of  raw  cotton  consumed.  England, 
with  considerably  over  one-third  of  the  spindles  of  the 
world,  consumes  annually  4,000,000  bales  of  cotton,  whereas 

10  As  of  March  1,  1913.    Sir  Chas.  Macara,  as  cited,  p.  9. 


APPENDIX  F  425 

the  United  States  of  America,  with  about  half  the  number 
of  spindles  there  are  in  England,  consumes  5,000,000  bales, 
and  Germany,  with  considerably  less  than  a  fifth  of  the 
spindles  in  England,  consumes  1%  million  bales.  The 
value  of  the  cotton  trade  of  the  respective  countries  can 
really  only  be  gauged  by  the  extent  of  the  machinery,  the 
labor  employed,  the  fineness,  variety,  excellence,  and  value 
of  the  fabrics  produced."  ^^ 

See  also  figures  in  Chapters  70,  71,  72. 
11  Cited  by  Porter,  p.  312. 


APPENDIX  a 

AXTTHORITIES 

Book  I 

PROM  INDIA  TO  ENGLAND 

Baines,  Edward,  Jr. — History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture : 

London,  1835, 
Balls,  W.  L.— The  Cotton  Plant  in  Egypt :  London,  1912. 
Chisholm,  G.  G. — Handbook  of  Commercial  Geography: 

London,  1904. 
Dana,  W.  B. — Cotton  from  Seed  to  Loom:  New  York, 

1878. 
Darwin,   Erasmus. — The  Botanic   Garden,  Part  I:  The 

Economy  of  Vegetation :  London,  1791 ;  Part  II :  The 

Loves  of  the  Plants :  London,  1790. 
Draper,  J.  W. — ^A  History  of  the  Intellectual  Development 

of  Europe :  New  York,  1863. 
Dyer,  John. — The  Fleece:  London,  1757. 
Ferrero,  G. — Characters  and  Events  of  Roman  History; 

Translation :  New  York,  1909. 
Hallam,  H. — ^View  of  the  State  of  Europe  during  the  Mid- 
dle Ages:  New  York,  1896. 
Halliwell,  J.  0.  (editor) — The  Voiage  &  Travaile  of  Sir 

John  Maundevile,  Kt.    Reprinted  from  the  edition  of 

1725 :  London,  1883. 
Herodotus. — Historia ;  Edited  by  Dietsch :  Leipzig,  1899. 
King,  Henry  (translator) — The  Metamorphoses  of  Publius 

Ovidius  Naso:  Edinburgh,  1871. 
Larned,  J.  N.   (compiler) — History  for  Ready  Reference 

and  Topical  Reading:  Springfield,  Mass.,  1895,  1901, 

1910. 
Lee,  Henry. — The  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary:  London, 

1887. 

426 


AUTHORITIES  427 

Reybaud,  L. — Le  Coton :  Paris,  1863. 

Rogers,  J.  E.  T. — The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History : 

New  York,  1909. 
RoYLE,  J.  F. — The  Culture  and  Commerce  of  Cotton  in 

India:  London,  1851. 
Schtjlze-Gaevernitz,  G.  von — Der  Grossbetrieb :  Leipzig, 

1892.     (See  also  Bk.  II.) 
SoNNERAT,   M. — Collection  des  Planches  pour  servir  Au 

Voyage  aux  Indes  Orientales  et  a  La  Chine:  Paris, 

1806. 
Wheeler,  B.  I. — Alexander  the  Great :  New  York,  1900. 
Yule,   Henry  (editor) — Cathay  and  the  Way   Thither: 

London,  1866. 

The  Cotton  Plant :  Washington,  1896. 
Encyclopedia  Britanniea,  9th  and  10th  editions. 
The  Naked  Truth,  in  an  Essay  upon  Trade:  1696. 
The  Charleston  News  and  Courier. 

Book  II 

the  transformation  of  ENGLAND 

Baines,  E.,  Jr. — See  Bk.  II. 

Blackstone,  W. — Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England 
(1765) :  London,  1809. 

Brougham,  H. — Lives  of  Men  of  Letters  and  Science :  Lon- 
don, 1846. 

Carlyle,  T.— Past  and  Present  (1843);  London,  1889; 
Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays  (1839) :  New  York, 
n.  d.,  vol.  iv. 

Carnegie,  A. — James  Watt :  New  York,  1905. 

Cheyney,  E.  p. — An  Introduction  to  the  Industrial  and  So- 
cial History  of  England :  New  York,  1905. 

Darwin,  E. — See  Bk.  I. 

Defoe,  D. — Tour  Through  the  Whole  Island  of  Great 
Britain:  London,  1727. 

Ellison,  T. — The  Cotton  Trade  of  Great  Britain:  Lon- 
don, 1886. 

Gaskell,  E.  C— Mary  Barton  (1848) :  London,  1906. 


428  APPENDIX  G 

Gaskell,  p. — ^Artisans  and  Machinery:  London,  1836, 

GiBBLNS,  H.  DE  B. — The  Industrial  History  of  England: 
London,  1904. 

Green,  J.  R. — A  Short  History  of  the  English  People :  New 
York,  1895. 

HoBSON,  J.  A. — The  Evolution  of  Modem  Capitalism: 
London  and  Felling-on-Tyne,  1906. 

Howe,  H. — ^Memoirs:  New  York,  1857. 

Innes,  a.  D. — England's  Industrial  Development:  New 
York,  1912. 

MacGreqor,  D.  H. — The  Evolution  of  Industry:  London, 
1914. 

Malthus,  T.  R. — ^An  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Popula- 
tion: London  (1803),  n.  d, 

Moore,  T.— Poetical  Works :  Philadelphia,  1856. 

North,  S.  N.  D. — The  Development  of  American  Industries 
since  Columbus,  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  xxxix: 
New  York,  1891. 

Perris,  G.  H. — The  Industrial  History  of  Modem  England : 
New  York,  1914. 

Pollard,  A.  F. — The  History  of  England :  London,  n.  d. 

Porter,  G.  R.— The  Progress  of  the  Nation  (1838) :  Lon- 
don, 1912. 

Rand,  B.  (compiler). — Selections  illustrating  Economic 
History:  New  York,  1903. 

Schulze-Gaevernitz,  G.  von. — Social  Peace  (Zum  Socialen 
Frieden) :  London,  1900.     (See  also  Bk.  I.) 

Seligman,  E.  R.  a. — The  Economic  Interpretation  of  His- 
tory: New  York,  1912. 

Seward,  A.  C.  (editor). — Darwin  and  Modem  Science: 
Cambridge,  1909. 

SUTCLIPPE,  T. — An  Exposition  of  Facts  relating  to  the  Rise 
and  Progress  of  the  Woolen,  Linen,  and  Cotton  Manu- 
factures of  Great  Britain:  Manchester,  1843. 

Thomson,  J.  A.  (with  P.  Geddes). — Evolution:  London, 
n.  d.     (See  also  Seward,  above.) 

ToYNBEE,  A. — Lectures  on  the  Industrial  Revolution :  Lon- 
don, 1908. 


AUTHORITIES  429 

Traill,  H.  D.  (editor). — Social  England:  London,  1905. 

Walpole,  S. — History  of  England  since  1815:  London, 
1878. 

Warner,  T. — ^Landmarks  in  English  Industrial  History: 
London,  n.  d.     (Also  in  Traill's  Social  England.) 

Wilkinson,  F.— The  Story  of  the  Cotton  Plant:  New 
York,  1906. 

Wood,  H.  T. — Industrial  England  in  the  Middle  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century:  London,  1910. 

WooDCROFT,  B. — Brief  Biographies  of  the  Inventors  of  Ma- 
chines for  the  Manufacture  of  Textile  Fabrics :  London, 
1863. 

The  London  Times,  Textile  Number,  June  27,  1913. 


Book  III 

AMERICA:    SECTIONAL   EVOLUTION 

Ballagh,  J.  C.  (editor) — The  South  in  the  Building  of  the 
Nation:  Richmond,  1910. 

Bishop,  J.  L. — A  History  of  American  Manufactures  from 
1608  to  1860:  Philadelphia,  1866. 

BoGART,  E.  L. — The  Economic  History  of  the  United 
States:  New  York,  1907. 

Bruce,  P.  A. — Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seven- 
teenth Century :  New  York,  1907. 

Callender,  G.  S.  (editor) — Selections  from  the  Economic 
History  of  the  United  States,  1765-1860 :  Boston,  1909. 

Curtis,  W.  E. — The  True  Thomas  Jefferson :  Philadelphia, 
1901. 

Day,  C. — ^A  History  of  Commerce :  New  York,  1907. 

Diaz,  B.  (del  Castillo) — The  True  History  of  the  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  Written  in  the  year  1568;  Maurice 
Keating,  Translator:  London,  1800. 

Elliott,  O.  L.— The  Tariff  Controversy:  Palo  Alto,  1892. 

FiSKE,  J. — The  Discovery  of  America :  Boston,  1892.  The 
Critical  Period  of  American  History:  Boston,  1892. 


430  APPENDIX  G 

Goodrich,  M. — Pawtucket  and  the  Slater  Centennial :  New 
England  Magazine,  vol.  iii,  Boston,  1891. 

Hale,  E.  E. — Memories  of  a  Hundred  Years:  New  York, 
1902.  Cotton  from  First  to  Last,  New  England  Maga- 
zine, vol.  iii,  Boston,  1891. 

Halle,  E.  von. — Baumwollproduktion  und  Pflanzungswirt- 
schaf t  in  den  Nordamerikanischen  Siidstaaten,  I :  Die 
Sklavenzeit:  Leipzig,  1897.     (See  also  Bk.  IV.) 

Hamilton,  A. — Works:  New  York,  1850. 

Hammond,  M.  B. — The  Cotton  Lidustry :  New  York,  1897. 
(See  also  Eli  Whitney,  below.) 

Hart,  A.  B. — Slavery  and  Abolition:  New  York,  1906. 
Formation  of  the  Union:  New  York,  1909.  American 
History  Told  by  Contemporaries :  New  York,  1909. 

Jefferson,  T. — Writings :  Washington,  1904. 

Johnson,  A. — Union  and  Democracy :  Boston,  1915. 

Johnston,  A. — American  Political  History:  New  York, 
1905.     (See  also  Bk.  IV.) 

Larned,  J.  N. — See  Bk.  I. 

Lincoln,  A. — Complete  Works:  New  York,  1894. 

Madison,  J. — Journal  of  the  Federal  Convention :  Chicago, 
1898. 

McHenry,  G.— The  Cotton  Trade :  1863. 

McLaughlin,  A.  C. — The  Confederation  and  the  Constitu- 
tion :  New  York,  1906. 

McMaster,  J.  B. — A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United 
States :  New  York,  1892.  Cambridge  Modern  History, 
vol.  vii :  New  York,  1906. 

North,  S.  N.  D.— See  Bk.  II. 

Olmsted,  D. — Memoir  of  Eli  Whitney:  American  Journal 
of  Science,  vol.  xxi :  1832. 

Prescott,  W.  H. — History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico :  New 
York,  1844. 

Phillips,  U.  B.  (editor) — A  Documentary  History  of 
American  Industrial  Society ;  vol.  i :  Cleveland,  1910. 

Ramsay,  D. — History  of  South  Carolina:  Charleston,  1809. 

Rich,  G. — The  Cotton  Industry  in  New  England:  New 
England  Magazine,  vol.  iii,  Boston,  1891. 


AUTHORITIES  431 

EoGEBS,  J.  B.  T.  (compiler) — Copy  of  Tracts  relating  to 
America  (17th  and  18th  centuries)  found  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford:  n.  d. 

Smith,  G. — The  United  States ;  an  Outline  of  Political  His- 
tory:  New  York,  1889. 

Turner,  F.  J.— The  Rise  of  the  New  West:  New  York,  1906. 

Tompkins,  D.  A. — ^American  Commerce:  Charlotte,  N.  C, 
1900.  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil :  Charlotte,  N.  C,  1901. 
The  Cotton  Gin :  the  History  of  its  Invention ;  exhibit- 
ing copies  of  Original  Patent  Specifications  and  Draw- 
ings, with  synopsis  of  testimony  in  the  27  law-suits  re- 
lating to  infringements  in  Ga.,  1796-1805:  Charlotte, 
N.  C,  1901. 

Walker,  F.  A. — The  Making  of  the  Nation:  New  York, 
1909. 

Weeden,  W.  B. — Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  Eng- 
land :  Boston,  1894. 

White,  G.  S. — Memoir  of  Samuel  Slater:  Philadelphia, 
1836. 

Whitney,  Eli. — Correspondence,  Edited  by  M.  B.  Ham- 
mond: American  Historical  Review,  October,  1897. 

WiNSOR,  J. — Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America: 
Boston,  1889. 

Wright,  C.  D. — The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United 
States:  New  York,  1902. 

The  American  Historical  Review. 


Book  IV 

AMERICA:   THE  GREAT  CONTROVERSIES 

Adams,  C.  F. — Studies  Military  and  Diplomatic :  New  York, 

1911.     (See  also  Bk.  V.) 
Alderman,    E.  A,    (editor) — The   Library    of    Southern 

Literature:  Atlanta,  1908. 
Banks,  E.  M. — The  Economics  of  Land  Tenure  in  Georgia: 

New  York,  1905. 


432  APPENDIX  G 

Bingham,    R. — Sectional    Misunderstandings:    Reprinted, 

with  additional  matter,  from  North  American  Review, 

for  Sept.,  1904. 
Bradford,  G.,  Jr. — Lee  the  American :  Boston,  1912. 
Brown,  W.  G. — The  Lower  South  in  American  History: 

New  York,  1902. 
Calhoun,   J.    C. — A   Disquisition   on   Government,   etc.: 

Columbia,  S.  C,  1851. 
Callender,  G.  S. — See  Bk.  III. 
Chad  WICK,  P.  E. — Causes  of  the  Civil  War:  New  York, 

1906. 
Christy,  D.— See  Elliott,  E.  N. 

Elliott,  E.  N.,  and  others. — Cotton  is  King :  Augusta,  1860. 
Elliott,  0.  L.— See  Bk.  III. 
Gordy,  J.  P. — A  History  of  Political  Parties  in  the  United 

States:  Athens,   0.,   1895.    Political  History  of  the 

United  States :  New  York,  1902. 
Halle,  E.  von. — BaumwoUproduktion  und  Pflanzungswirt- 

schaft   in    den    Nordamerikanischen   Siidstaaten,    II: 

Sezessionskrieg    und    Rekonstruktion :    Leipzig,    1906. 

(See  also  Bk.  III.) 
Hammond,  H. — Sketch  of  James  Henry  Hammond.    Print- 
er's proof. 
Hammond,  J.  H. — Speech  on  the  Admission  of  Kansas; 

Speech  on  the  Relation  of  States:  Washington,  1858, 

1860. 
Hammond,  M.  B.— See  Bk.  III. 
Hart,  A.  B.— See  Bk.  III. 

Helper,  H.  R. — The  Impending  Crisis :  New  York,  1857. 
Johnson,   0. — ^William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  His  Times: 

Boston,  1880. 
Johnston,  A. — American  Orations :  New  York,  1906.     (See 

also  Bk.  III.) 
Larned,  J.  N. — See  Bk.  I. 
Lincoln,  A. — See  Bk.  III. 
Lodge,  H.  C. — ^Daniel  Webster :  Boston,  1895. 
McMaster,  J.  B.— See  Bk.  III. 
Morse,  J.  T.,  Je. — John  Quincy  Adams :  Boston,  1895. 


AUTHORITIES  433 

Rhodes,  J.  F. — History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Com- 
promise of  1850 :  New  York,  1906. 

Smith,  G.— See  Bk.  III. 

Taussig,  F.  W.— The  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States: 
New  York,  1905.     (See  also  Bk.  VII.) 

Tompkins,  D.  A.— See  Bk.  III. 

Webster,  D. — Writings  and  Speeches :  Boston,  1903. 

Wn^sON,  W. — Division  and  Reunion:  New  York,  1909. 
Cambridge  Modem  History,  vol.  vii :  New  York,  1906. 

Book  V 

AMERICA :  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

Adams,  C.  F. — Charles  Francis  Adams:  Boston,  1900. 
Transatlantic  Historical  Solidarity:  Oxford,  1913.  A 
Crisis  in  Downing  Street:  Boston,  1914.  (See  also 
Bk.  IV.) 

Alderman,  E.  A. — See  Bk.  IV. 

Davis,  J. — The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment :  New  York,  1881. 

Fite,  E.  D. — Social  and  Industrial  Conditions  in  the  North 
during  the  Civil  War :  New  York,  1910. 

Grant,  U.  S. — Personal  Memoirs :  New  York,  1885. 

Halle,  E.  von. — See  Bks.  Ill  and  IV. 

Hammond,  M.  B. — See  Bk.  III. 

JJARNED,  J.  N. — See  Bk.  I. 

MoRLEY,  J. — The  Life  of  Richard  Cobden:  Boston,  1890. 

"Nauticus." — Beitrage  zur  Flotten-Novelle :  Berlin,  1900. 

Reed,  J.  C— The  Brothers'  War:  Boston,  1906. 

Rhodes,  J.  F.— See  Bk.  IV. 

Schwab,  J.  C. — The  Confederate  States  of  America:  New 
York,  1901.  Cambridge  Modem  History,  vol.  vii:  New 
York,  1906. 

Trevelyan,  G.  M.— The  Life  of  John  Bright:  Boston,  1913. 

The  Charleston  Courier. 

The  London  Times. 

Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


434  APPENDIX  G 

Book  VI 

THE  OLD  SOUTH  AND  THE  NEW 

Alderman,  E.  A. — See  Bk.  IV. 

BuRKETT,  C.  W.   (with  C.  H.  Poe)— Cotton:  New  York, 

1906. 
CoPELAND,  M.  T. — The  Cotton  Manufacturing  Industry  of 

the  United  States:  Cambridge,  1912. 
Curtis,  W.  E.— See  Bk.  III. 
Derrick,  S.  J. — The  Cotton  Mills  of  the  South :  Newberry, 

S.  C,  1915. 
Emery,    H.    C. — Economic    Development    of    the   United 

States,  in  Cambridge  Modem  History,  vol.  vii:  New 

York,  1906. 
Goldsmith,  P.  H.— The  Cotton  Mill  South :  Boston,  1908. 
Grady,  H.  W. — ^Writings  and  Speeches :  New  York,  1890. 
Hand,  W.  H. — Report  of  State  High  School  Inspector: 

Columbia,  S.  C,  1915. 
KoHN,  A. — The  Cotton  Mills  of  South  Carolina:  Charles* 

ton,  1907. 
McCuLLOCH,  J.  E.  (editor) — The  Human  Way:  Nashville, 

1913. 
Page,  W.  H. — The  Rebuilding  of  Old  Commonwealths :  New 

York,  1905. 
Payne,  E.  J. — Colonies  and  Colonial  Federations :  London, 

1904. 
Reed,  J.  C— See  Bk.  V. 
Thompson,  H. — ^From  the  Cotton  Field  to  the  Cotton  Mill : 

New  York,  1906. 

The  American  Historical  Review. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 

Science. 
Reports  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  and  of  the 

Thirteenth  Census. 


AUTHORITIES  435 

Book  VII 

COTTON  AND  WORLD  TRADE 

Alderman,  E.  A. — See  Bk.  IV. 

Ashley,    W.    J. — Germany    and    Cotton:    The    Atlantic 

Monthly,  Jan.,  1916. 
Atkinson,  E. — The  Industrial  Progress  of  the  Nation:  New 

York,  1889. 
Balls,  W.  L.— See  Bk.  I. 
BuRKETT,  C.  W.— See  Bk.  VI. 
Grady,  H.  W.— See  Bk.  VI. 
Law,  W.  a. — Cotton  as  a  Factor  in  American  Trade: 

Philadelphia,  1907. 
Macara,  C. — Leading  the  World :  London,  1913. 
Mather,    W. — Egypt    and   the   Anglo-Egyptian   Sudan: 

Southampton,  1910. 
Porter,  G.  R.— See  Bk.  II. 

Price,  T.  H. — Cotton  and  Finance:  New  York,  1912. 
Ramsay,  W. — Article  in  the  English  Review,  May,  1915. 
RiTTER,   W.   E. — War,   Science  and   Civilization:   Boston, 

1915. 
Rogers,  H.  J.   (editor) — Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 

vol.  vi:  Boston,  1906. 
Schmidt,  A. — Cotton  Growing  in  India:  Manchester,  1912. 
Sully,    D.   J. — ^Articles   in   the   Cosmopolitan   Magazine: 

New  York,  Feb.,  Mar.,  and  Apr.,  1909. 
Taussig,  F.  W. — Some  Aspects  of  the  Tariff  Question: 

Cambridge,  1915.     (See  also  Bk.  IV.) 
Thomson,  J.  A. — See  Bk.  II. 

Todd,  J.  A. — The  World's  Cotton  Crops:  London,  1915. 
Tompkins,  D.  A. — Cotton  Values  in  Textile  Fabrics :  Char- 
lotte, N.  C,  1902.     (See  also  Bk.  III.) 
Whelpley,  J.  D. — The  Trade  of  the  World:  New  York, 

1913. 
Wickware,  F.  G.   (editor) — American  Year  Book:  New 

York,  1915,  1916. 


436  APPENDIX  G 

The  Charlotte  Observer. 

The  London  Times. 

The  Manchester  Guardian. 

Keports  of  the  Thirteenth  Census,  the  United  States  De- 
partments of  Commerce  and  of  Agriculture,  the  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Tropical  Agriculture,  the  British 
Cotton  Growing  Association,  and  the  Master  Cotton 
Spinners'  and  Manufacturers'  Associations. 


THE  SIH) 


INDEX 


For  use  in  topical  reading,  consult  titles  such  as  Blockade,  Consti- 
tution, Great  War  of  1914,  England,  Slavery,  Southern  Characteris- 
tics, and  Statistics. 

Abolition  discussed  by  Webster,      Alpino  on  Egyptian  cotton,  372. 


215;    grows,   226,   246. 

Abolitionists  criticize  Webster, 
224  S. ;    discuss  secession,  246. 

Adams,  C.  F.,  Sr.,  on  England 
during  Civil  War,  272,  275  fif., 
288;  Lowell's  tribute  to  him, 
276;  his  famous  telegram, 
290. 

Adams,  C.  F.,  Jr.,  quotes  J.  Q. 
Adams,  245,  and  Gordy,  248, 
on  secession;  his  own  views 
on  it,  249  ff. ;  quotes  Mrs.  J. 
Davis,  258;  on  Cotton  Fam- 
ine, 261  ff.;  on  England  and 
Civil  War,  275  ff. 

Adams,  J.,  on  the  Constitution, 
136,    137  n. 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  on  secession,  205, 
245-246. 

Africa  and  cotton,  370. 

Ahasuerus  and  cotton  canopies, 
18. 

Alabama,  cotton  and  slavery, 
198  ff.;   railway  building,  203. 

Alabama  and  cotton,  285  ff. 

Alderman,  E.  A.,  cited,  311  ff., 
340. 

Alexander  the  Great  discovers 
cotton,  5  ff .,  23  ff. ;  his  trade 
routes,  23  ff. 

Alexandria's  ancient  greatness, 
25;  modern  importance  as 
cotton  market,  334  n. 


Altitude   of   cotton   zone,   337. 

Amasis  and  cotton,  23,  26. 

American  Historical  Review 
cited,   154  ff. 

American  Journal  of  Science 
cited,   154  ff. 

Angell,  N.,  on  cotton  and  inter- 
nationalism, 4;  on  econom- 
ics and  fatalism,  297;  on 
slavery,  325;  on  "half -pre- 
paredness," 392. 

Anglo-Egyptian   Sudan,    373. 

Annals  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social 
Science  cited,  309,  327,  334, 
339,   374. 

Annapolis  convention,  Madison 
at,   125. 

Antony,  Mark,  uses  cotton  in 
Egypt,   15. 

Ants  and  aphides,  388. 

Antwerp   and   cotton,   35. 

Arabia  and  cotton,  31. 

Arachne,  44,  176,  229,  384,  402. 

Argentine  and  cotton,  380. 

Aristobulus  cited,    17. 

Arizona,  207;  cotton  produc- 
tion, 379. 

Arkansas,   admission    of,    205. 

Arkwright,  R.,  his  invention, 
58,  66  ff. 

Army  consumption  of  cotton, 
364,   366. 


437 


438 


INDEX 


Arnold,  J.  J.,  cited,  309  n. 

Arrian  on  cotton  commerce,  26, 
35. 

Ashley,  R.  L.,  cited,  182  n., 
260  n. 

Ashley,  W.  J., 'cited,  364. 

Ashley's   report   cited,   98. 

Asia  and  cotton,  6ff.,  16  ff., 
351  n.,   393. 

Assyria  and  cotton,  18. 

Atkinson,  E.,  cited,  350,  380, 

Atlanta  railway,  202. 

Augusta  and  Whitney,  162,  165; 
Courier  cited,  191  n.;  rail- 
way, 202. 

Austria  declares  war,  360. 

Authorities,    426  fif. 

Automatic   loom,   346  flF. 

Babson,  R.  W.,  cited,  360. 

Bahamas  and  ancient  cotton 
culture,  113. 

Baines,  E.,  Jr.,  on  Hindu  cotton 
culture,  20,  22;  introduction 
of  cotton  into  England,  44; 
inventors,  59;  the  "mule," 
71;  English  and  American 
interdependence,    302,    414. 

Balance  of  trade,  U.  S.,  and  cot- 
ton,  3,  399  ff. 

"Balbriggan,"  372. 

Baldwin,  J.  A.,  326. 

Baling  in  America,  305,  309  n., 
344. 

Ballagh,  J.  C,  cited,   169. 

Balls,  W.  L.,  on  cotton  in 
Egypt,   26,   372 

Bamford,  S.,  poem  cited,   101  n. 

Bancroft,   G.,   quoted,    156. 

Barometz,  8. 

Barr  Brothers,   172. 

Battleships  and  cotton  con- 
sumption,   366. 

Beard,  C.  A.,  cited,   137  n. 

Beecher,  H.  W.,  at  Manchester, 
290. 

Berenice  and  cotton,  24, 


Beverly  visited  by  Washington, 
173. 

Bingham,  R.,  cited,  251. 

Bishop,  J.  L.,  on  American 
manufacture,   122  ff. 

Blackstone,  W.,  on  cotton  laws, 
46  n. 

Bleaseism,  321. 

Bledsoe,  A.  T.,  229. 

Blockade  of  1812,  175;  of  Civil 
War,  262  ff.,  291;  of  1914, 
362  ff. 

Bogart,  E.  L.,  cited,  140  n.,  148, 
184. 

Boll  weevil,  382. 

Bombay  as  cotton  market, 
334  n. 

Bonaparte  on  cotton  in  Egypt, 
372. 

Borametz,  8. 

Boston  and  secession,  205; 
Burns  case,  228;  on  Webster, 
224;    on   Cotton   Famine,  293. 

Boulton  and  Watt,  80. 

Bow,   19,  125. 

Bradford,  G.,  Jr.,  cited,  251. 

Brazil  and  coffee,  314;  and  cot- 
ton, 337. 

Bremen  as  cotton  market, 
334  n.,   319. 

Bright,  J.,  cited,  259;  on  Surat 
cotton,  268;  his  letters,  269, 
289;   his  speeches,  282,  288. 

Brindley's  canals,  58,  84  ff. 

British  commission,  on  South's 
cotton  monopoly,  370. 

British  Cotton  Growing  Asso- 
ciation, 264,  370  ff. 

Brougham,  H.,  on  Watt  and 
Davy,   78  ff.;    on  charity,   97. 

Brown,  A.  A.,  173. 

Brown,  Michael,  231. 

Brown,  Moses,  173. 

Brown,  "Ossawatomie,"  228, 
233. 

Brown,  W.  G.,  quoted,  203. 

Bruce,  P.   A,,  cited,   124. 


INDEX 


439 


Burkett    and    Poe    cited,     127, 

336,  356  n.,  370. 
Burning     of     cotton     in     Civil 

War,  293  flf. 
Burning  of  U.   S.    Constitution, 

136,  246. 
Burns  case,  228. 
"Buy  a  bale"  movement,  367. 


Cabot,  J.,  173. 

Caesar's  cotton  awning,  30. 

Calexico  cotton,  379. 

Calhoun,  J.  C,  and  protection, 
179,  188;  on  Wilmot  Proviso, 
206  ff.;  his  last  speech,  209  ff.; 
death,  226. 

Calico,  how  named,  6. 

Calicut  and  cotton,  6,  21,  35. 

California,  admission  of,  207  ff., 
221  ff.;   cotton  growing,  375 ff. 

Camak,  D.  E.,  326. 

Canal  of  Ptolemy,  24;  of 
Brindley,  84 ff.;  Panama,  351, 
354. 

"Captains  of  Industry,"  79, 
97  ff. 

Caravans  and  cotton,  32. 

Carlyle,  T.,  on  "captains  of  in- 
dustry," 79,  97  ff. 

Carnegie,  A.,  on  Watt,  80;  his 
childhood,  347  n.;  on  cotton- 
seed, 355. 

Cartwright,  E.,  his  invention, 
58,  71  ff. 

Cartwright,  S.  A.,  230. 

Cellulose,  365. 

Charles  V  and  cotton,   116. 

Charleston  and  tariff,  187;  its 
cotton  trade,  191  n.;  first 
railroad,  202;  visited  by 
Russell,  259;  Courier,  quoted, 
293;  News  and  Courier, 
quoted,  4. 

Chattanooga  railway,  202. 

Chemistry  and  cotton  in  war, 
365  n. 


Cheyney,  E.  P.,  cited,  56. 

Child  labor  in  England,  63, 
98  ff.;    in  U.   S.,   326  ff. 

Chimu  and  cotton  culture,   117, 

China  and  caravan  trade,  32; 
cotton  production,  337,  339  n., 
423;    trade   consumption,  350. 

Cholula  and  ancient  cotton  cul- 
ture, 113. 

Christy,    D.,    229  ff.,    418. 

Churka,   19,   125,   158. 

Cicero,  cited,  241. 

Cincinnati  railway,  202. 

Civil  War  and  cotton,  257  ff., 
318,  340. 

Clark,  J.  B.,  on  Industrial 
Revolution,  94  ff. ;  on  Asia 
and  cotton  manufacture, 
351  n. 

Clark,  V.  S.,  cited,  169. 

Clarke,  W.,  on  British  labor, 
98  n. 

Clarkson   letters,   229. 

Clay,  H.,  and  protection,  180, 
190;  his  compromises,  201, 
207  ff.;  speech  quoted,  208; 
death,   226. 

Clayton,  V.  P.,  cited,  355. 

Clothing  of  the  world,  5,  337, 
350  n.;  increase  per  capita  in 
U.  S.,  353. 

Cobden,  R.,  on  Cotton  Famine, 
267,  282;  letters  to  Sumner 
on,  273  ff.,  280. 

Coffee  and  cotton,  314. 

Cole,  Mrs.  A.  R.,  323. 

Colorado,  admission  of,   208. 

Colorado  River  and  cotton  grow- 
ing, 375  ff. 

Columbus  sails  for  India,  35; 
discovers  cotton  in  Cuba,  113; 
introduces    slavery,    139. 

"Compact"  theory  of  Constitu- 
tion, 188,  193. 

Compressing,  306,  309  n. 

Compromise,  Missouri  •  (see 
Missouri);   of  1850,  197. 


440 


INDEX 


Comproir.ise8  of  Constitution, 
193,  248  flf. 

Conditions  for  cotton  culture, 
338. 

Confederacy,  Davis's  inaugural, 
257;  Lee  on,  262;  sends 
Slidell  to  Napoleon,  271  ff.; 
cotton  loan,  284  flf. ;  failure  at- 
tributed to  England,  275  flf., 
291;  failure  to  use  cotton  re- 
sources,  295. 

Confederation,    failure   of,    128. 

Congress,  early  futility  of,   129. 

Connecticut,  early  manufacture 
in,  123;  early  use  of  cotton, 
123;  early  dissensions,  130; 
Whitney's  home,  167;  in  the 
Constitutional  Convention, 
133  flf. 

Constitution  of  U.  S.,  its  cre- 
ation, 128  flf. ;  recognizes 
slavery,  138,  246;  interpreted 
by  Calhoun,  188,  193;  com- 
promises of,  193,  248  flf.,  318; 
secession  in,  195,  245  flf. ; 
burnt  in  N.  Y.,  136,  and  in 
Mass.,  246;  Rawle's  view  of, 
251-252. 

Contraband,  cotton  declared  so 
in  1915,  366  n. 

Copeland,  M.  T.,  statistics  of 
manufacture,  348. 

Corn  and  cotton  in  England,  91, 
406;    in   America,   168,   279. 

Coromandel  and  cotton,  21. 

Cortes  finds  cotton,  113  flf.; 
imitated  in  New  England, 
123. 

Cotton  and  Finance  cited,  353, 
354. 

"Cotton  Belt,"  338,  343,  370, 
379,  381. 

"Cotton  Famine,"  261  flf. 

"Cotton  is  King,"  229  flf.,  239, 
257  flf. 

"Cotton  Whigs,"  224. 

Cottonseed  development,  354  fif. 


Coxe,  T.,  and  early  cotton  in- 
dustry, 122  fif.,  172;  on  de- 
cline of  slavery,  148;  on  pro- 
tection, 180;  on  ship-build- 
ing, 302. 

Crabbe  describes  Cartwright, 
77. 

Crawford,  M.  C,  cited,  226  n. 

Crompton,  S.,  his  Invention,  58, 
71  flf.,  327. 

Cuba  and  ancient  cotton  cul- 
ture, 113;  in  the  great  con- 
troversies,  200. 

Cultivation,  see  Farming. 

Curtis,  W.  E.,  cited;  147. 

Dabney,  C.  W.,  cited,  381. 

Damascus  cottons,  31. 

Dana,  W.  B.,  on  cotton  and 
gold,  3,  4. 

Darwin,  C,  and  Malthus, 
105  flf. ;  his  doctrine  stated, 
389. 

Darwin,  E.,  poem  on  Vegetable 
Lamb,  11;  poem  on  Ark- 
wright's  mill,  68;  opinion  of 
coming  power  of  cotton,  70. 

Davenport,  F.  M.,  quoted,  327, 
369. 

Davis,  J.,  at  West  Point,  251 ; 
inaugural  address,  257;  on 
England  and  Civil  War,  275, 
291;  on  failure  of  cotton  re- 
sources, 292. 

Davis,  Mrs.  J.,  cited,  258. 

Davy,  H.,  his  invention,  58, 
78  flf. 

DeBow  cited,   150,  259. 

Defoe,  D.,  cited,  47,  55. 

De  la  Croix,  poem  on  Vegetable 
Lamb,  10. 

Delaware  and  the  Constitution, 
135. 

Derrick,  S.  J.,  cited,  329 

Dew  cited,  151. 

Dickinson,  G.  L.,  cited,  21. 

Drake,  F.,  and  Hawkins,  140. 


INDEX 


441 


Draper,  J.  W.,  on  Gama's 
voyage,  37. 

Dubois,  J.,  his  invention,  76  n. 

Dupin,  M.,  on  Industrial  Revo- 
lution, 87  n. 

Durango   cotton,   377. 

Duret,  C,  on  Vegetable  Lamb, 
13. 

Dutch  and  slavery,  140. 

Dyer,  J.,  poem  on  "The  Fleece," 
60,  404. 

East  India  Co.  organized,  44. 

Eden  and  cotton,  380. 

Edgeworth,  M.,  cited,  65. 

Edward  III  and  the  Flemish, 
15,  39flF. 

Egypt  and  early  cotton  com- 
merce, 26;  mummies,  28  ff.; 
modern  cotton  production, 
337,  361,  370  flf.,  423. 

Egyptian  cotton,  values,  337, 
372;  grown  in  U.  S.,  375  ff. 

Elliott,  E.  N.,  cited,  230. 

Elliott,  O.  L.,  quotes  Washing- 
ton,   121;    Jefferson,    196. 

Ellison,  T.,  quotes  Fuller,  41; 
on  English  cotton  laws,  46, 
48;  on  Cotton  Famine,  264. 

Elson,  H.  W.,  cited,   247  n. 

Emancipation  Proclamation  and 
England,  279. 

Emerson  on  Webster,  224. 

Emery,  H.  C,  cited,  311  n., 
348  n. 

England  and  new  trade  routes, 
37;  Flemish  immigration,  15, 
39 ff.;  introduction  of  cotton, 
44 ff.;  rivalry  with  Holland, 
37,  44;  attempts  suppression 
of  cotton,  46  ff.;  Industrial 
Revolution  in,  48  ff . ;  encour- 
ages American  slavery,  139, 
141;  cotton  manufacture,  184, 
264,  349;  Davis's  message  to, 
258,  and  his  verdict  on,  291; 
Cotton     Famine,    261  ff.;     in- 


fluence on  Civil  War,  279  n., 
291;  treatment  of  cotton  in 
Great  War  of  1914,  362  ff. 

"Equilibrium"  doctrine,  201, 
210,  215. 

Erlanger  loan,  284  ff.,  289, 

Esther,  cotton  citation,   18. 

Evolution,  the  doctrine  abused, 
107  ff.,  385  ff.;  the  corrected 
theory,  386  ff . ;  and  the  cotton 
plant,   387. 

Exchanges,  cotton,  334  n.;  and 
the  Great  War,  360. 

Exports  and  cotton,  see  under 
Statistics. 

"Exposition"  of  Calhoun,  188. 

Fabian      Essays      cited,      38  n., 

98  n. 
Factory  Acts,  99  ff. 
Famine,     Cotton,     in     England, 

etc.,  261  ff. 
Farm    crops    of     U.     S.,     1914, 

360  n. 
Farming  of  cotton,   303  ff.,  338. 
Fatalism    and    economics,     295, 

340.     See  also  Arachne. 
Federal  Convention,   128  ff. 
Federalist    cited,    133,    136. 
Ferrero,  G.,  cited,  25. 
Financier   cited,    2. 
Fisher,  J.,  173. 
Fiske,  J.,  on  evolution,  108,  386 ; 

"Critical       Period,"       128  ff.; 

early  slavery,  139. 
Fite,  E.  D.,  cited,  268. 
Flanders    and    cotton    manufac- 
ture, 35  ff. 
"Fleece,"  poem  cited,  404. 
Flemish  weavers,  15,  39  ff. 
Florida,  admission  of,  205. 
Flowers  of  cotton,  304,  387. 
Fontaine,  P.,  cited,  141. 
Force  bill,  190. 
France     and      Cotton      Famine, 

271  ff.,    283 ff.;    and    War    of 

1914,  362  ff. 


i42 


INDEX 


Franklin,  B.,  on  clothing  of 
colonists,  119  ff.;  at  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  133  S. 

Free-soilers,  225  ff. 

Free  trade  and  cotton,  179  ff., 
313. 

Fugitive  slave  law,  228,  230. 

Fuller,  T.,  cited,  40,  41. 

Fulton,  R.,  meets  Cartwright, 
76;  praises  Whitney,  154;  let- 
ter from  Whitney,  301;  his 
invention,  302,  356. 

Galveston  exports  increase,  354. 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  sails  for  India, 
35;  transforms  trade  routes, 
36. 

"Gangetiki,"  30. 

Garrison,  W.  L.,  on  secession, 
205,   246. 

Gaskell,  Mrs.  E.  C.  S.,  on  In- 
dustrial Revolution,  101. 

Gaskell,  P.,  cites  Radcliffe, 
64  n.;  on  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion, 98  ff. 

Geddes,   P.,   cited,   107,  386  ff. 

Genoa  and  cotton,  34  ff. 

George    III    cited,    128,    142. 

Georgia  and  early  cotton  cul- 
ture, 124;  and  the  Constitu- 
tion, 132  ff.,  189;  early  slav- 
ery, 143,  145,  150;  vexes 
Whitney,  165;  tariff  strug- 
gle,   189. 

Germany  and  cotton  in  Great 
War,  362  ff. 

Gezira  plain  and  cotton,  373. 

Gibbins,  H.  de  B.,  on  Industrial 
Revolution,  1,  51,  98  ff. 

"Gin,"  etymology,  65;  invention 
of,  158  ff.   (see  also  Whitney). 

Gladstone,  on  U.  S.  Constitu- 
tion, 134;  and  the  Civil  War, 
275  ff. 

"Golden  age"  of  cotton  in  Eng- 
land, 70. 

Gordy,  J.  P.,  cited,  248. 


"Gossypium,"   68,   380  n.,  387. 

"Grades"  explained,  374  n. 

Grady,  H.  W.,  on  old  South, 
306;  on  Sherman,  319;  on 
cotton  plant,  382. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  quoted,  294. 

Grayson,  W.  J.,  poem  on  slaves, 
308. 

Great  War  (of  1914)  and  cot- 
ton, 313,  359  ff. 

Greece  and  cotton,  30. 

Greene,  Mrs.  N.,  and  Whitney, 
154  ff. 

Grimshaw,  J.,  his  verses,  76. 

Guadaloupe  and  ancient  cotton 
culture,  113. 

Guest  on  English  weavers,  57. 

Gulf  exports  increase,  354'. 

Gun-cotton,   365  ff. 


Haiti  and  ancient  cotton  cul- 
ture,  113. 

Hallam,  H.,  on  Edward  III.,  39. 

Halle,  E.  von,  cited,  152,  257. 

Hamilton,  A.,  and  early  manu- 
facture, 122  ff.;  on  early  cot- 
ton prospects,  123,  125;  and 
the  Constitution,  133  ff. 

Hamilton,  Governor  of  S.  C, 
187. 

"Hammocks,"  etymology  of,  113. 

Hammond,  H.,  on  cotton  in- 
crease in  a  century,  5,  337; 
cited,  236  n.,  296. 

Hammond,  J.  H.,  229,  235  ff., 
257,  295. 

Hammond,  M.  B.,  on  cotton  in 
ancient  America,  116;  cotton 
and  colonists,  124;  rice  crop, 
146;  early  slavery,  149  ff.; 
slavery  and  cotton,  198  ff.; 
cotton  and  Civil   War,  259  ff. 

Hargreaves,  J.,  his  invention, 
58  ff.,   329. 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  and  Salton 
Sea,  376. 


INDEX 


443 


Harriman,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  on  child 

labor,  326,  328, 
Hart,   A.   B.,   cited,   132,    147  n., 

186,    194;    on    New    England 

and   secession,    195. 
Hartford  visited  by  Washington, 

174;  "Convention,"  195. 
Havre    as    cotton    market,    319, 

334  n. 
Hawkins,  J.,  and  slavery,  139. 
Hayne,    R.    Y.,   and   tarifif,    187, 

190;    "compact"   theory,    193; 

S.  C.  railway,  202. 
Helper,     H.     R.,     cited,     142  ff., 

231  ff. 
Henry,  P.,  on  slavery,  143. 
Herodotus  on  cotton,   7,   8,   17, 

26. 
"Higher  Law"  doctrine,  226. 
Hill,  B.,  on  the  new  South,  310. 
Hindus  and   cotton,    6  ff.,    19  flF., 

384.    See  India. 
Hobson,  J.  A.,  on  inventions,  82, 

414. 
Hodge,  C,  on  slavery,  230. 
Holland  and  England,  37,  44. 
Hollyhock  and  cotton,  304. 
Holmes,  H.,  and  Whitney,  162  S. 
Holmes,  J.,  and  Jefferson,  196. 
Hoist,  H.  von,  on  Calhoun,  212. 
Homer,  H.,  on  roads,  86. 
Hooper,  B.  W.,  and  negro  prob- 
lem, 323. 
Howe,    H.,    on    great    inventors, 

66 ff.;  quotes  Whitney's  letter 

to  Fulton,  301. 
Hunley,  W.  M.,  on  negro  prob- 
lem, 325. 
Hunt's      Merchants'      Magazine 

cited,  270. 
Hutton,  J,  H.,  cited,  374. 

Illiteracy,  325. 

Impending    Crisis   cited,    142  ff., 

231  flf. 
Imperial    Valley    of    California 

and  cotton,  375  ff. 


Imports  of  cotton  goods,  U.  S., 
345.  ' 

Incas  and  ancient  cotton  culture, 
117. 

India  and  Alexander,  6 flf.;  early 
cotton  history,  16 flf.;  relation 
to  Civil  War,  264 ff.;  modem 
cotton  production,  337,  339  n,, 
423 ;  modern  manufacture, 
351  flf. 

Indians,  American,  and  cotton, 
113,   123. 

Indigo,  its  decline,  145. 

Industrial  Revolution  in  Eng- 
land, 48  flf. ;  reflex  action  on 
America,  175,  302,  356. 

IneflBcient  America,  344  ff. 

Intensive  cultivation  important, 
381. 

Interdependence  of  nations,  4, 
360  ff.,  391. 

Internationalism,  4',  360  flf.,  391. 

Inventions,  British,  58  flf. ;  Amer- 
ican, see  Whitney;  philosophy 
of,  82;  statistics  of,  414. 
(See  also  under  names  of  ma- 
chines and  inventors.) 

Inventors,  Baines  on,  59.  (See 
under  individual  names.) 

Iowa,  admission  of,  205. 


Jackson,  A.,  quoted,  189,  190. 

Jackson,  Governor  of  Ga.,  on 
Whitney,   164. 

Jackson,  "Stonewall,"  319. 

Japan  and  cotton  manufacture, 
351,   393. 

Jay's  treaty,  218. 

Jean  de  Struys  on  Vegetable 
Lamb,  12. 

Jefferson,  T.,  on  early  cotton 
culture  in  America,  124;  on 
slavery,  142;  on  tobacco  crop, 
147;  writes  to  Whitney,  160; 
on  protection,  179;  Ky.  Reso- 
lutions,   193;    on    Mo     Com- 


444 


INDEX 


promise,  196,  200;  on  early 
secession  tendencies,  246. 

Jeffrey  on  Watt's  engine,  80. 

Jenny  invented,  58,  63  ff . ;  ety- 
mology, 65;  brought  to  U.  S., 
122,  172. 

Johnson,  Allen,  cited,  128,  131. 

Johnson,  Alvin,  cited,  314. 

Johnson,  Judge,  on  Whitney, 
166. 

Johnson,  O.,  on  Garrison,  246. 

Johnston,  A.,  on  the  Constitu- 
tion, 136  n.;  on  early  slavery, 
143;  quotes  Quiney,  194; 
blames  Congress  of  1803,  197; 
quotes  Clay,  208,  Calhoun, 
209  ff.,  and  Von  Hoist,  212; 
criticized,  217  n.;  quotes 
Whittier,  225;  on  secession, 
247. 

Jumel  plants  cotton  in  Egypt, 
372. 

Kansas,  admission  of,  228,  236. 
Kay,  J.,  invents  fly-shuttle,  52, 

57,  59  ff.,  329. 
Kay,    R.,    invents    drop-shuttle, 

61. 
Kelvin  on  Watt's  engine,  80. 
Kentucky     and     early     slavery, 

145;    "Resolutions,"    193,    194. 
King,     H.,     translation     quoted, 

402. 
King  predicted  in  America,  128. 
King's  speech  on  cotton   (1904), 

371  n. 
Kirkland,  J,  H.,  cited,  402. 
Kirchwey,   G.   W.,  on   Blockade, 

263. 
Kropotkin,  cited,  388. 
Krupps  and  wood-pulp,  365  n. 

Lagos  cotton,  371. 
Lair,  M.,  quoted,  296. 
Lancashire  and  cotton,  41,  424; 
Cotton    Famine,    261ff.j    su- 


premacy threatened  by  Japan 
and  India,  351,  393. 

Latitude  of  cotton  zone,  337. 

Latta,  J.  W.,  251. 

Laws  against  cotton,   45  ff. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  on  slavery, 
141. 

Lee,  Fitzhugh,  251. 

Lee,  H.,  on  Vegetable  Lamb, 
9ff.;  on  cotton  in  ancient 
America,  117. 

Lee,  R.  E.,  at  West  Point,  251; 
on  foreign  aid,  262;  esteemed 
in  the  South,   319. 

Lentulus  Spinther  and  cotton, 
30. 

Lewis,  G.,  and  Civil  War,  276. 

Lincoln,  A,,  on  early  slavery, 
140  n.,  144;  on  principle  in- 
volved in  secession,  244;  Trent 
incident,  275;  letter  to  Man- 
chester working-men,  279  n. ; 
esteemed  in  the  South,  319. 

Lindsay  and  Roebuck  incident, 
286  ff. 

Literary  Digest  cited,  296,  353. 

Liverpool  as  cotton  market, 
319,  334  n.,  360. 

Livy  on  cotton,  30. 

Lodge,  H.  C,  on  Webster  and 
tariff,   182;   on  secession,  249. 

London  Index  cited,  281. 

London   Magazine  cited,   353, 

London  Saturday  Review  on 
Cotton  Famine,  266. 

London  Times  on  Industrial 
Revolution,  62,  75;  on  Davis's 
inaugural  address,  258;  on 
Cotton  Famine,  263,  265,  266, 
267. 

London  Weekly  Review  (Defoe) 
cited,  48. 

Loom  invented,  58,  71  ff.,  175, 
302. 

Louisiana  purchase  and  admis- 
sion of,  194,  197 ff.,  219;  cot- 
ton and  slavery  in,  1-98  ff. 


INDEX 


445 


Lowndes    of    S.    C.    iBtroduces 

tariff,  179. 
Lowell,  F.  C,  175. 
Lowell,    J,    R.,    his    tribute    to 

Adams,  276. 


Macara,  C,  on  American  ineffi- 
ciency, 344,  349,  424;  on  the 
world's  clothing,  350  n.;  spind- 
leage  table,  424. 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  on  cotton  laws, 
47;  on  Whitney,  127. 

Magellan,  F.,  finds  cotton  in 
Brazil,   113. 

Magill,  P.  H.,  Jr.,  cited,  379  n. 

MacGregor,  D.  H.,  on  Industrial 
Revolution,  101;  on  transpor- 
tation, 390. 

McCulloch,  J.  E.,  324  n. 

McHenry,  G.,  cited,  148,  268. 

McMaster,  J.  B.,  on  American 
colonial  life,  119,  144;  cotton 
manufactiire,  184;  tariff,  185, 
186. 

Madison,  J.,  on  early  cotton 
prospects,  125;  ignorance  of 
Ga.,  131;  Journal  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention,  132  flF.; 
on  slavery,  142;  on  protec- 
tion, 179;  Ky.  Resolutions, 
193;  Va.  Resolutions,   195. 

Maine,  admission  of,  201. 

Malthus,  T.  R.,  on  population, 
92,  104  ff.;  on  benevolence,  97; 
transportation,  390. 

Malvacece,  304  n. 

Manchester  and  early  "cottons," 
15,  41 ;  in  Cotton  Famine,  279, 
290. 

Manu,  Institutes  of,  16,  17. 

Manufacture  (see  Appendix  F) 
in  U.  S.,  120  flf.,  348,  349;  in 
early  South,  169;  in  New 
England,  123,  172  ff.,  183, 
302;  in  modern  South  as  com- 
pared with  New  England,  34 1> 


422;  in  England,  see  under 
England,   and   Appendix   F. 

Manufacturers  Record  cited,  350. 

Markets  of  world,  334  n.,  356, 
360  flF.,  and  Appendix  F. 

Markham,  C.  R.,  on  cotton  in 
ancient  Peru,  116,  117. 

Marsh,  A.  R.,  cited,  309  n., 
334  n.,  339  n.,   374  n. 

Marshall,  J.,  and  the  Constitu- 
tion,  135. 

Maryland  and  the  Constitution, 
132  flf. ;  and  early  slavery,  143, 
146,  151;  later  slavery,  151. 

Marx,  E.,  on  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion, 97. 

Mason  and  Slidell,  274,  283  flf., 
291. 

Massachusetts  and  the  Constitu- 
tion, 135  flf.;  and  slavery,  140; 
early  cotton  manufacture, 
172  flf.,  183;  secession,  194, 
195,  205,  246;  modern  cotton 
manufacture,  343,  and  Ap- 
pendix P. 

Mather,  W.,  on  cotton  in  Sudan, 
373. 

Maundevile,  J.,  on  Vegetable 
Lamb,  13,  14. 

Maury,  D.  H.,  251. 

Maximilian   and  Napoleon,  271. 

Memphis  railway,  202. 

Mercerized  cotton,  29. 

Mesopotamia  and  cotton,  380. 

Metamorphoses  of  Ovid  quoted, 
402. 

Mexico  and  ancient  cotton  cul- 
ture, 113  flf.;  modem  do., 
377  flf. 

Michigan,  admission  of,  205. 

Microscope  and  cotton,  28  flf. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  on  machinery,  329. 

Mill  problem  of  the  South, 
315  flf.,    326  flf.,    330. 

Miller,  P.,  and  Whitney,   155  flf. 

Miner's  lamp  invented,  68,  78  flf. 

Mississippi    cotton    first    men- 


446 


INDEX 


tioned,  116;  extensive  cultiva- 
tion, 198  ff.,  374  n.;  and  tariff, 
189. 

Missouri  Compromise,  189, 
196  ff. 

Mit  Aflfi  cotton,  372. 

Mivart,  St.  G.,  cited,  387. 

"Money  crop"  of  South,  305, 
335  ff.,   357. 

Monopoly  of  cotton  in  South, 
337  ff.,  370,  381. 

Monroe,  J.,  and  the  Constitu- 
tion, 135;  on  slavery,  142. 

Monteziuna  and  cotton  culture, 
114  ff. 

Moore,  T.,  cited,  406. 

Moors  bring  cotton  to  Spain,  31. 

Morris,  Gouverneur's  father, 
130. 

Morse,  J.  T.,  Jr.,  on  J.  Q.  Adams, 
246. 

Mosul,  6. 

"Mountain  whites,"  315  ff. 

"Mud-sill"  theory,  240. 

Mulberry  Grove,   154  ff. 

"Mule,"  58,  62,  71  ff.,  327,  347. 

Muslin,  how  named,  6. 

Mythology  of  cotton,  6ff. 

Naked  Truth  quoted,  46. 

Napoleon  I  on  cotton  in  Egypt, 
372. 

Napoleon  III  and  Cotton  Fa- 
mine, 271  ff.;  and  Cotton 
Loan,  283  ff. 

National  service,  392. 

"Nationalism"  of  the  old  South, 
202. 

Natural  monopoly,  cotton,  338. 

Natural  selection,  105  ff.,  389. 

"Nauticus"  quoted,  262. 

Navigation    Acts,    37,    218  n. 

Navy  consumption  of  cotton, 
366. 

Nearchus  quoted,  6. 

Negro  problem,  323  ff.  See  also 
Slavery. 


Nevada,  207. 

Newbern,  N.  C,  and  early  slav- 
ery, 143. 

New  England  and  early  dissen- 
sions, 130;  and  Constitution, 
132  ff.;  early  slavery,  138  ff.; 
is  affected  by  the  gin,  172  ff.; 
attitude  on  protection,  180  ff. ; 
on  secession,  194,  205,  246; 
during  cotton  famine,  270. 
See  also  under  Manufacture, 
and  Appendix  F. 

New  Hampshire  and  the  Con- 
stitution, 135;  cotton  manu- 
facture,  183. 

New  Jersey  antagonizes  N.  Y., 
130;  early  slavery  in,  145; 
cotton  manufacture,   183. 

New  Mexico,  207  ff.,  221  ff.,  379. 

New  Orleans  and  Civil  War 
blockade,  292;  as  a  cotton 
market,  319,  334 n.,  360;  in- 
crease of  cotton  exports,  354. 

New  Republic  cited,  314. 

New  York  antagonizes  Connecti- 
cut, 130,  and  the  Constitution, 
132  ff.;  early  slavery  in,  140, 
145,  150;  as  cotton  market, 
319,  334 n.,  360;  Ledger  cited, 
306;  Packet  cited,  131;  Timea 
cited,  368;   Tribune  cited,  226. 

Nile  and  cotton,  24,  26,  371  ff. 

Nineveh  and  cotton,  18. 

Norris,  F.,  and  "The  Octopus,"  1. 

North,  S.  N.  D.,  cited,  60,  174. 

North  American  Review  cited, 
251. 

North  Carolina  and  early  cotton 
culture,  124;  and  the  Consti- 
tution, 132 ff.;  early  slavery, 
143;  pays  Whitney,  165; 
modern  cotton  manufacture, 
342,  343;  entertains  Wu  Ting 
Fang,  350. 

Northwest  territory  ceded, 
132;   ordinance  of,  144,  206. 

"Nullification,"  190,  193. 


INDEX 


447 


Nyassaland  and  cotton,  371. 

Odoric  on  the  Vegetable  Lamb, 
13. 

Oliver,  F.  S.,  on  National  Serv- 
ice, 392. 

Olmsted,  D.,  cited,  154  ff. 

Orme  on  cotton  in  India,  21. 

Orr,  H.,  172. 

Outlook  (N.  Y.)  cited,  4,  327, 
369,   401. 

Ovid's  Metamorphoses  quoted, 
402. 

Owen,  R.,  and  Industrial  Revo- 
lution, 99,   100. 

Page,  W.  H.,  quoted,  382. 

Pacific,  mastery  of,  394. 

Pallas,  fable  of,  118,  400. 

Palmerston  and  the  Civil  War, 
275. 

Panama  canal,  river-fed,  84; 
and  cotton  trade,  351^  354. 

Paraguay  river  and  cotton,  380. 

Parana  river  and  cotton,  380. 

Parker,  T.,  on  Webster,  224, 
226  n. 

Paul,  L.,  his  invention,  67. 

Pawtucket,  first  factory,  174, 
303. 

Peel,  R.,  on  population,  90,  105; 
British   labor,   99. 

Pennsylvania  and  the  Constitu- 
tion, 133  S. ;  cotton  manufac- 
ture, 122,  172,  184. 

Persia  and  early  use  of  cotton, 
17,  23  ff. 

Peru  and  cotton,  116  ff.,  380. 

"Peter  loo,"  101. 

Philadelphia  and  cotton  manu- 
facture, 122,  172,  184;  Con- 
gress and  Constitutional  Con- 
vention,  129,   132  ff. 

Phillips,  U.  B.,  cited,  120,  141, 
147,  191  n. 

Phillips,  W.,  on  secession,  246. 

"Pick"  explained,  61  n. 


Pinckneys  of  S.  C,  138  ff.,  144. 

Pizarro  on  cotton  in  Peru,  116. 

Plantation  life  in  the  South, 
156,  303  ff. 

Pliny  on  cotton  in  Egypt,  26. 

Pollard,  A.  F.,  on  new  trade 
routes,  38;  on  Industrial 
Revolution,  91,  109  n. 

Polo,   M.,  on   cotton,  21. 

Popular  Science  Monthly  cited, 
60. 

Population  of  England  affected 
by  cotton,  90,  415;  of  the 
South,  do.,  152,  234. 

Porter,  Admiral,  on  Blockade, 
262. 

Porter,  G.  R.,  on  spinning-jenny 
and  steam-engine,  89  n. 

Ports,  U.  S.,  and  recent  exports, 
354. 

Power  loom,  see  Loom. 

"Preparedness,"  391  ff. 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  on  cotton  in 
ancient  Mexico,  114  ff. 

Price,  T,  H.,  on  cotton  and  bal- 
ance of  trade,  3,  399  ff. ;  cot- 
ton and  the  Civil  War,  259; 
per  capita  increase  in  cotton 
consumption,  353. 

Products  of  cotton,  335;  of  cot- 
tonseed, 355,  356,  and  inserted 
Table. 

Protection  affected  by  cotton, 
179  ff.,  313. 

Quail  and  boll  weevil,  382. 
Quincy,    J.,    on    secession,    194, 
197. 

Radcliffe,  W.,  on  Industrial 
Revolution,  64  n.,  70,  78. 

Railroads  and  cotton,  202. 

Raiment  supply,  see  Clothing. 

Rams,  incident  of,  285,  290  ff. 

Ramsay,  D.,  History  of  S.  C. 
quoted,  144,  168,  170. 


448 


INDEX 


Bamsay,  W.,  on  cotton  in  war, 
365, 

Randolph,  E.,  and  the  Constitu- 
tion,  132,  135. 

Randolph,  J.,  on  protection,  180, 
186. 

Ratification  of  Constitution, 
134  ff. 

Rawle,  W.,  on  Constitution  and 
secession,  251. 

Reed,  J.  C,  quoted,  316. 

Repeal  of  Mo.  Compromise,  197. 

Revolution,  American,  128;  In- 
dustrial  (English),  48 ff. 

Reybaud,  L.,  on  cotton  and 
Renaissance,  34. 

Rhode  Island  and  the  Constitu- 
tion, 132  ff.;  and  slavery,  141; 
cotton  manufacture,   183,  343. 

Rhodes,  J.  F.,  on  cotton  and 
tlavery,  198;  Cuba  and  slav- 
ery, 200;  Calhoun's  last 
speech,  209;  Webster's  7th  of 
March  speech,  212,  223-224; 
Burns  case,  228;  Helper's 
"Impending  Crisis,"  223;  cites 
Russell,  259;  cites  Seward, 
265;  cites  London  press,  266, 
267;  on  Napoleon  III,  272, 
291;  cites  Cobden's  and 
Bright's  letters,  274,  289; 
cites  Adams'  telegram,  290;  on 
British  rams,  290;  on  Eng- 
land and  the  Civil  War,  291; 
on  cotton  burning,  294. 

Rice,  its  decline,  145  ff. 

Rig  Veda  hymn,   16. 

Ring-frames  in  U.  S.,  328,  347. 

Ritter,  W.  E.,  on  war  and 
science,  385  ff. 

Roads  and  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution,   86. 

Roberts,  L.,  on  "Treasure  of 
Traffic,"  45. 

Roebuck  and  Napoleon,  286  ff. 

Rogers,  J.  E.  T.,  on  economic 
interpretation   of   history,    1; 


early    English    weaving,    41; 

British  wool-growing,  42  n. 
Rome,  cotton  in,  15,  30. 
Roosevelt,  T.,  and  the  Imperial 

Valley,  376. 
Rosetta  stone  and  cotton,  26. 
Rotation    of    crops    needful    in 

South,  337,  367. 
Rowan    Co.,    N.    C,    and    early 

slavery,   143. 
Royle,  J.  F.,  cited,  16. 
Russell  and  Civil  War,  275,  290. 
Russia,    ancient    caravan    trade, 

32;  modern  cotton  production, 

337,  381,  423. 

Saint  Nihal  Singh,  on  cotton  in 
India,    352. 

Salton  Sea,  376. 

San  Francisco  Exposition,  cot- 
ton award,  378. 

Saracens  bring  cotton  to  Spain, 
31. 

Saturday  Evening  Post  cited, 
354. 

Savannah  and  Whitney's  patent 
records,  162,  163;  and  first 
railway,  202. 

Saw-gin  invented,   163. 

Schulze-Gaevernitz,  G.  von,  on 
cotton  and  Renaissance,  35; 
on  Industrial  Revolution, 
97  ff. 

Schwab,  J.  C,  on  cotton  in  Civil 
War,  258,  284. 

Seabrook,  W.  B.,  on  early  cotton 
culture,  124. 

Sea-island  cotton  introduced, 
126;    its  grade,   374  n. 

Secession,  in  U.  S.  as  a  whole, 
244  ff.,  247  ff.  (see  Adams, 
Garrison,  Gordy,  Jefferson, 
Lincoln,  Lodge,  Phillips, 
Quincy,  Rawle,  G.  Smith)  ;  in 
Mass.,  194,  205;  at  West 
Point,  251 ;  localized  in  South, 
253. 


INDEX 


449 


Seligman,  E.  R.  A.,  cites  Marx, 
97  n.;  on  slavery,  229  n.;  on 
fatalism,  296  n. 

Sennacherib's  gardens  and  cot- 
ton, 18. 

Seward,  F.  W.,  on  Clay's  speech, 
208;  Webster's,  213. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  his  speeches, 
226,  235;  his  letters,  265,  274, 
290,  292. 

Seybert's  statistics  cited  by 
Webster,  218  n.,  243. 

Shaw,  G.  B.,  on  war,  385;  on 
discovery  of  America,  38  n. 

Sheep-grazing  and  cotton,  355. 

Sherman  burns  cotton,  294,  319. 

Sieur  du  Bartas,  poem  on  Vege- 
table Lamb,  11. 

Slavery  introduced  in  America, 
139;  opposed  in  early  South, 
141  flf.;  dependence  on  tobacco, 
146;  declines,  147  ff.;  revives 
in  South,  149  flf. ;  extends 
westward,  198,  201  (see  also 
416-417)  ;  Webster  on,  217  flf.; 
affects  Southern  population, 
152,  234;  determines  Eng- 
land's attitude  toward  Civil 
War,  281;  slave's  pleasures, 
poem,    307. 

Slater,  S.,  172  flf.,  302. 

Slidell  and  Napoleon,  271  flf., 
283  flf.,  291. 

Smith,  A.,  and  Watt,  79,  93,  95. 

Smith,  G.,  on  early  slavery,  140; 
on  Webster  and  free  trade, 
180;   on  secession,   195,  245  n. 

Social  changes  in  modern  South, 
315  flf.,  323  flf. 

Somers,  T.,  173. 

South  and  the  Constitution, 
132  ff. ;  and  early  slavery, 
138  ff. ;  is  transformed  by  the 
gin,  166 ff.;  manufactures  de- 
cline, 169,  260  n.;  protection 
vs.  free  trade,  179  ff.,  313  ff.; 
states-rights,  189 ff.;  national- 


ism in,  202 ff.;  builds  rail- 
ways and  steamboats,  202  ff. ; 
localizes  secession,  253;  de- 
pendence on  England  and 
North,  232,  261  n.,  302,  and  on 
cotton  culture,  303  ff.,  310  n.; 
its  cotton  wealth,  184,  187, 
198,  201,  236  ff.,  242,  311  ff., 
340  ff.,  399  ff.,  422;  modern 
manufacture  in,  340  ff.,  422; 
modern  problems  of,  315  ff.; 
monopoly  of  cotton  crop,  337, 
381;  modern  export  increase, 
354;  Great  War  of  1914,  368. 
See  also  Table  of  Contents. 

South  America  and  cotton, 
113  ff.,  380. 

South  Carolina  and  early  cotton 
culture,  124;  and  the  Consti- 
tution, 132 ff.;  early  slavery 
in,  138  ff.,  144,  151;  pays 
Whitney,  165;  is  affected  by 
the  gin,  168;  protection  vs. 
free  trade,  179 ff.;  187;  flirst 
railroads  and  steamboats, 
202  ff. ;  illiteracy  disappear- 
ing, 325. 

Southern  California  and  cotton, 
375  ff. 

Southern  characteristics,   316  ff. 

Southern  Sociological  Congress, 
323. 

Spain,  cotton  introduced  into, 
31. 

Spindles  of  the  world,  348,  424. 

Spinning-bee  of  New  England, 
118. 

Spinning- jenny.    See  Jenny. 

"Spinster"  etymology,  57. 

Sprinkler  Bulletin  cited,  337, 
362. 

"Staple"  explained,  374  n. 

States-rights  in  early  U.  S.  his- 
tory, 132;  later  period,  189, 
244,  318. 

Statistics:  see  especially  Appen- 
dix A  and  F.    World  clothing 


450 


INDEX 


supply,  6,  350  n.;  cotton  sup- 
ply, 337,  361,  423  flF.;  cotton 
crops  compared  with  gold  and 
silver,  2  n. ;  cottonseed  supply, 
356;  spindles,  424;  American 
exports  of  cotton,  3,  184  ff., 
218,  236  flf.,  242,  302,  336,  337, 
345,  351,  354,  390  flf.,  418  flf.; 
manufacture  of  cotton,  174, 
175,  183,  312,  341,  348,  422; 
balance  of  trade,  4,  399  flF. ; 
slavery  in  relation  to  cotton, 
146,  149,  150,  152,  198,  199, 
201,  311,  416-417;  population 
as  affected  by  cotton,  152,  234 ; 
negro  problem,  324-325;  illit- 
eracy, 325;  California  cotton 
crop,  376  S. ;  increase  of  con- 
sumption, 353.  England's  In- 
dustrial Revolution,  52,  87, 
89,  98;  increase  of  manufac- 
ture and  wealth,  349  n.,  414; 
increase  of  population,  90, 
415;  Cotton  Famine,  263  ff., 
271,  284;  Cotton  Growing  As- 
sociation, 371  ff.;  Great  War 
of  1914,  362  ff.  See  also 
under  names  of  individual 
countries. 

Steamboats  and  cotton,  203. 

Steam-engine  invented,  58,  78  ff. 

Stowe,  H.  B.,  228,  278  ff. 

Strabo's  Geographia  cited,  6  n. 

Stringfellow,  T.,  229. 

"Struggle  for  existence,"  105  ff., 
389. 

Substitutes  for  cotton  in  war, 
365  n. 

Suez  and  ancient  transportation, 
24. 

Sugar  crop,  145. 

Sully,  D.  J.,  cited,  346,  358; 
"Sully  year,"  365. 

Simmer,  C,  letters  from  Seward, 
265,  Bright,  269,  289,  Cobden, 
273  ff.,  280. 

Sumner,  W.  G.,  on  tariff,  186. 


Sumptuary    laws     and     cotton, 

46  ff. 
Surat  cotton,  268. 
"Survival  of  the  fittest,"  105  ff., 

389. 
Swickard,  Mrs.  E.,  378  n. 

Taney,  R.  J.,  228. 

Tariff  and  cotton,  179  ff.,  187  ff., 
313  ff.;  "of  abominations," 
181,  185  ff. 

Taussig,  F.  W.,  on  inventions, 
82;  on  "comparative  advan- 
tage," 346  ff. 

Ta vernier  on  cotton,  21. 

Technical  training,  importance 
of,   343,  346,  349. 

Tennessee  pays  Whitney,   165. 

Texas,  admission  of,  198,  206, 
215,   220. 

Theophrastus  on  cotton,  7,  8. 

Thomas  of  Illinois,  201. 

Thomson,  J.,  on  Egyptian  mum- 
mies, 28  ff. 

Thomson,  J.  A.,  on  evolution, 
107,  386  ff. 

Thompson,  H.,  on  the  new 
South,  317  ff. 

Thompson,  R.  E.,  cited,  128. 

Thucydides  cited,  259. 

TLmrod,  H.,  poem  quoted,  394. 

Tobacco,  its  decline,  145  ff.,  168; 
relation  to  early  slavery,  146. 

Todd,  J.  A.,  on  American  ineffi- 
ciency, 344;  on  cottonseed, 
354,  356;  on  cotton  and  world 
influences,  358;  cites  King's 
speech,  371  n.;  on  Yuma  cot- 
ton, 377;  Argentine,  Mexico, 
Eden,  Mesopotamia,  380. 

Tompkins,  D.  A.,  cited,  143;  on 
Whitney's  invention,  154  ff.; 
on  early  Southern  manufac- 
ture, 169,  170;  on  importance 
of  technical  training,  342. 

Toynbee,  A.,  on  economic  inter- 
pretation of  history,  1;  on  In- 


INDEX 


451 


dustrial    Revolution,    78,    92, 

101. 
Trade  unions  originate,   100. 
Traill,  H.   D.,  cited,   51  ff. 
Transportation  and  social  evolu- 
tion, 389,  390. 
Treasury,  U.  S.,  protects  cotton 

in  1914,  367. 
Trent  incident,  274. 
Trevelyan,  G.  M.,  Life  of  Bright 

cited,   268,   269,   288. 
Tully,    C,    and    early    American 

manufacture,   122,   172. 
Turner,    F.    J.,    on    cotton    and 

slavery,   151,   198,  201. 

Uganda  and  cotton,  371. 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  228,  233, 

278  ff. 
Utah,  207. 

Vasco  da  Gama's  voyage,  35  ff. 

Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary,  6  ff. 

Venice  and  cotton,  34  ff. 

Virginia  and  early  cotton  cul- 
ture, 123;  and  the  Constitu- 
tion, 132  ff. ;  and  early  slav- 
ery, 139  ff.;  raises  slaves,  151; 
opposes  tariff,  189;  "Resolu- 
tions," 194,  195;  discusses 
abolition,  215. 

Wages  in  the  South,  328. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  and  Malthus, 
106. 

Walpole,  S.,  on  inventions,  81. 

Waltham,  first  complete  factory, 
175. 

War  and  cotton,  359  ff.,  384. 

War  and  invention,  383  ff. 

War,  Civil,  see  Civil  War. 

War  of  1812,  175,  183,  246. 

War  of  1914,  see  Great  War. 

Ward,  W.,  on  ancient  Indian 
cotton,  22. 

Warner,  T.,  on  Industrial  Revo- 
lution, 61  ff.,  102. 


Washington,  B.  T.,  322. 

Washington,  G.,  and  weaving, 
119  ff.;  at  Constitutional  Con- 
vention, 133  ff.;  on  slavery, 
142;  visits  factories,  173  ff.; 
his  simplicity,  320. 

Water-frame  invented,  58,  66  ff. 

Watt,  J.,  invents  steam-engine, 
63,  78  ff.,  92  ff.,   356. 

Watts,  I.,  on  Indian  skill,  20. 

Watts,  J.,  on  the  Cotton  Fa- 
mine, 279. 

Weatherford,  W.   D.,   323. 

Webster,  D.,  and  protection, 
180 ff.;  7th  of  March  speech, 
207  ff.,  212  ff.  (power  of  cot- 
ton), 223  ff.,  379,  408  ff.; 
death,   226. 

Weeden,  W.  B.,  on  early  Amer- 
ican  manufacture,    123  ff. 

West  Point  and  secession,  251- 
252. 

Western  and  Atlantic  railway, 
202. 

Wetherell,  S.,   122  ff. 

Wheat  and  war,  359. 

Wheeler,  B.  I.,  on  Alexander's 
roads,  24. 

Whelpley,  J.  D.,  cited,  346. 

White,  G.  S.,  on  Slater,  172. 

White,  H.  A.,  on  Calhoun,  209, 
212. 

Whitney,  E.,  his  gin,  5,  88,  127, 
154  ff.,  301. 

Whittier,  J.  G.,  on  Webster, 
225. 

Wilkinson,  F.,  on  Crompton,  72. 

Williams,  J.  S.,  on  cotton  in 
War  of  1914,  368. 

Wilmot  Proviso,  205  ff.,  224, 

Wilson,  W.,  on  cotton  and  slav- 
ery, 151;  wealth  of  the  South, 
184,  187;  quotes  Jackson, 
189;  on  Southern  national- 
ism, 204;  on  admission  of 
Te-xas,  205;  on  Calhoun's 
death,    226;    on    slavery    and 


452 


INDEX 


Southern  population,  234;   on 

shipping   bill,   313. 
Winsor,  J.,  on  cotton  in  ancient 

America,  116,  117. 
Winterbotham,  W.,  cited,  147. 
Winthrop,    J.,    on    early    cotton 

manufacture,  123. 
Wister,  0.,  on  Washington,  320. 
Wood,     H.     T.,     on     Industrial 

Revolution,   86,   89. 
Woodcroft,  B.,  on  the  fly-shuttle, 

60. 
Wood-pulp       and       gun-cotton, 

365  n. 
Wool  and  cotton  in  England,  29, 

39,    42  n.;    in    America,    185, 

356. 


Wool-sack,  origin  of,  40. 
World  statistics  of  cotton.     See 

Statistics. 
Wormald,  J.,  cited,  337,  362. 
Wright,  C.  D.,  cited,  125. 
Wright,  H.  B.,  cited,  376  n. 
Wu  Ting  Fang  on  Chinese  use 

of  cotton,  350. 
Wyatt,  J.,  his  invention,  67. 
Wyoming,  208. 

Yale  and  Whitney,  154,  155. 
Yuma  cotton,  377  n. 

Zanzibar  and  Gama,  35. 
Zone  of  cotton  culture,  337. 


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